Who Leaves and Who Arrives? Mapping the Connections between Universities and the Science and Engineering Workforce

University Of California-San Diego, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

A persistent puzzle in the U.S. science and engineering (S&E) workforce is that there are far more Americans with S&E degrees than work in S&E jobs, while at the same time industry leaders argue there is a shortage of qualified workers in this strategically important sector. This research uses the NSF SESTAT database to focus on factors that can affect the entry and exit dynamics of all S&E workers. We exploit the insights gained from disaggregation to show how the nation?s gain or loss of supply of S&E workers varies by field of degree, how workers without an S&E degree can impact the S&E worker supply, how university type and geographic location interact with these and demographic variables like race, gender and age, and how all of these are affected by how we choose to define what constitutes an S&E job in the first place. Broader Impacts: This research provides a necessary foundation for understanding prominent, higher order questions in research on the S&E workforce, such as how we can increase the numbers of women and minorities in S&E, or how immigration affects the supply and demand for S&E workers. Moreover, this exploration will identify the strengths of SESTAT, and highlight where new or revised questions may improve it. Finally, this examination of the multiple pathways of entry and exit will generate new hypotheses for exploration.