Science and 

 Engineering Personnel 



Indicators in this section chart the growth of the national pool of scientists and engineers; present 

 trends in the utilizatic^n of such personnel; provide data on undergraduate and graduate enrollments 

 and financial support; depict growth patterns in the production of scientists and engineers; and 

 measure changes in their employment level. 



Available data and present methodology did not permit the development of indicators of the 

 quality and productivity of the Nation's scientists and engineers. For the same reasons, it was not 

 possible to devise reliable indices of the future demand for and supply of such personnel for inclusion in 

 the present report. Improvements in both data (e.g., better information on the utilization of scientists 

 and engineers in non-academic, non-R&D activities and the role of immigration and emigration of 

 personnel) and methodology (e.g., better techniques for predicting the future state of the economy and 

 for anticipating the emergence of national problems requiring the services of scientists and engineers) 

 are required for more reliable forecasts of the supply-demand situation. As methodologies and data 

 series used in projections are improved, indicators of supply-demand relationships will be included in 

 future reports of this series. 



INDICATOR HIGHLIGHTS 



D The total pool of active scientists and engi- 

 neers in the United States grew by about 50 

 percent from 1960 to 1971, rising to some 

 1,750,000. The number with doctorates 

 doubled during the period, reaching 10 per- 

 cent of the total. 



D Scientists and engineers comprised an in- 

 creasingly larger proportion of total civilian 

 employment over the last two decades, 

 although the extent of the increase in the 

 1960's (167 to 210 per 10,000 workers) was 

 less than that during the 1950's (93 to 167 per 

 10,000 workers). 



D The proportion of natural scientists and 

 engineers engaged in R&D increased to 37 

 percent between 1960-64, but declined 

 steadily thereafter. This downward trend 

 was more pronounced among academic than 

 industrial scientists and engineers, and re- 

 flects the growth in faculty needed for teach- 

 ing, as well as the leveling off of R&D funds. 



D Between 1968 and 1970 the number of 

 natural scientists and engineers in industrial 

 R&D declined to the 1967 level, the first such 

 decline during the 1960's. 



The distribution of scientists and engineers 

 among major types of employers changed 

 between 1960-70, with the proportion in 

 industry declining from 74 to 66 percent and 

 the fraction in universities and colleges rising 

 from 11 to 18 percent. 



Total enrollments in high school courses of 

 social sciences, natural sciences, and mathe- 

 matics grew faster than total secondary 

 enrollments between 1960-70, with the 

 largest increases occurring in psychology and 

 economics and the smallest in physics, 

 chemistry, and mathematics. Physics was the 

 only field in which the proportional growth 

 was less than the increase in total enroll- 

 ments. 



The number of undergraduate students at 

 the junior-year level who declared majors in 

 physics, engineering, and chemistry de- 

 clined between 1970-71, whereas the 

 number declaring majors in the applied social 

 sciences and professional life sciences in- 

 creased significantly. 



Graduate enrollments (full-time and part- 

 time combined) in science doctorate depart- 

 ments declined by almost 4 percent between 

 1969 and 1971, the first such absolute de- 



48 



