engineering, or influence those already in these 

 fields to move from one type of employment to 

 another. The present lack of such indicators, it is 

 hoped, will be remedied in the future as 

 improved methodologies are developed for 

 measuring these aspects. 



The measures of quantitative characteristics 

 presented here are themselves less than com- 

 plete. ' In the case of the utilization of scientists 

 and engineers, for example, data are not 

 available after 1970 with respect to industrial 

 employment. Data are also lacking on new 

 baccalaureates and masters entering the market 

 since 1970. Information on the specific activities 

 of scientists and engineers, especially those in 

 the academic sector, are limited by the current 

 inability to obtain full-time equivalent (FTE) 

 data on major activities such as R&D and 

 teaching, by field of science. The surrogate 

 measure of numbers of scientists and engineers 

 "primarily involved" in an activity provides a 

 useful but relatively crude measure of this 

 factor. In the case of supply, the latest data on 

 the production of baccalaureate and masters 

 degrees from the National Center for 

 Educational Statistics covers the 1972-73 period. 



CHARACTERISTICS AND 



UTILIZATION OF SCIENCE 



AND ENGINEERING PERSONNEL 



Employment of scientists and engineers 



Employment of scientists and engineers 

 stabilized in the first years of the 1970's, after 

 increasing substantially for several decades. - 

 During the 1950's, the number of scientists and 

 engineers doubled, rising from about 600,000 to 

 nearly 1.2 million. In the 1960's, employment 

 grew by almost as much in absolute terms, from 

 about 1.2 to over 1.7 million; the relative gain, 

 however, was only about half that of the 1950- 

 60 decade. Furthermore, between 1960 and 1970 

 the number of scientists grew significantly 

 faster than the number of engineers (75 and 38 

 percent respectively), partially as a result of 

 substantial gains in social science fields. 



1 Some of these deficiencies are expected to be corrected 

 during thie next year througfi the new National Science 

 Foundation — Bureau of the Census surveys of industrial 

 employment and the complete implementation of the 

 National Science Foundation Manpower Characteristics 

 System. 



2 EmploumenI of Scientists and Engineers, 1950-70, Bureau of 

 Labor Statistics, Department of Labor, lo/3. 



Beginning in 1969, growth in total employ- 

 ment of scientists and engineers slowed and then 

 remained relatively level until about mid-1972. 

 The factors underlying these changes include 

 cutbacks in defense, space, and associated R&D 

 spending in these areas, the general economic 

 climate, and the beginning of a slowdown in 

 academic hiring. Though employment in some 

 sectors continued to increase — namely, higher 

 education and government (particularly State 

 and local) — little if any growth occurred in 

 industry, the major sector of employment for 

 scientists and engineers. Unfortunately, no 

 specific measurements of industrial employment 

 of scientific and technical personnel have been 

 taken since 1970, though a survey is being 

 reinstated by the National Science Foundation. 

 However, by using information on past trends 

 and relationships and several related sources of 

 information, it has been possible to prepare 

 estimates of the probable level of industrial 

 employment of scientists and engineers for 

 1972. Using these estimates, together with 

 information on nonindustrial sectors of employ- 

 ment, it is thus possible to estimate the total 

 number of scientists and engineers employed in 

 1972. The available data do not permit estimates 

 to be made for more recent years. 



In 1972, estimated overall employment of 

 scientists and engineers stood at about 1.7 

 million, approximately the same as in 1970. In 

 the first years of the 1970's, employment in the 

 sciences continued to grow slightly while 

 engineering employment declined somewhat 

 between 1970 and 1972. These overall patterns 

 of change include minor shifts in the sectoral 

 distribution, with university and college and 

 Government employment gaining while the 

 proportion declined for the industrial sector. 



Although recent information is not available 

 on an overall and detailed basis for scientists and 

 engineers, selected information about such 

 personnel is provided by the National Science 

 Foundation's National Sample of individuals in 

 science and engineering jobs. A sample was 

 drawn from the 1970 Census of Population and 

 used for the 1972 and 1974 surveys; the results 

 provide information on a large portion of the 

 Nation's science and engineering personnel. 



An estimate of the distribution of these 

 personnel among fields of science and engineer- 

 ing was obtained from the 1974 survey, and is 

 shown below. 



116 



