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Shortages of Scientists and Engineers Projected
The United States should stop counting on other countries to supply scientists and engineers to fill U.S. labor needs, warns the National Science Board in The Science and Engineering Workforce: Realizing America’s Potential, a report issued in November. The group, which is appointed by the president to direct the National Science Foundation, based its report on a three-year study of the issue. Forecasting steeply increased demand for such professionals over the next decade, the board urges federal support for a broad agenda of education initiatives designed to increase the number of U.S.-born science and engineering graduates entering the workforce.
Escalating global competition for workers trained in science and engineering and declining interest among U.S. students in these fields contribute to the problem, the report says. In addition, immigration restrictions since the September 11, 2001, attacks have hampered the mobility of foreign scientists and engineers; the number of visas issued for these workers dropped in half from 2001 to 2002.
As U.S. firms relied increasingly on foreign workers between 1990 and 2000, the percentage of the country’s science and engineering positions filled by foreign-born workers rose from 14 to 22 percent overall, and from 24 to 38 percent at the doctoral level. But science and engineering employment is now expanding faster outside the United States than within. As a result, eased visa restrictions and other stop-gap measures will probably not suffice in the future, even if national security measures permit them, the report warns. Highlighting this concern, the board cautions that “surgical interventions in the workforce responsive to short-term fluctuations in supply and demand” must not be the focus of U.S. policy, especially given the prohibitive lead times required for developing scientific facilities and education.
Instead, the board recommends improving U.S. educational capacity and fostering interest among American-born students in science and engineering. Specific recommendations stress the need for outreach to underrepresented demographic groups—especially at the community college level, where concentrations of minority students are highest—and for economic incentives to students, teachers, and institutions at all levels. Among the economic incentives suggested, the board proposes increased federal support for scholarships, grants, and stipends to address the issue that adequate numbers of students currently enter undergraduate and graduate science and engineering programs, but fail to finish.
Further recommendations include more competitive compensation for precollege math and science teachers; better integration between college and university science and engineering departments and schools of education; and increased support for curricular innovation, in part to prepare students for career options outside academia.
The board calls it “essential” for U.S. policies to support opportunities for American students and faculty to participate in international science and engineering education and research, and to maintain the ability of the United States to attract top foreign researchers, faculty, and students.
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