Nonacademic Scientists and Engineers:

Trends From

The 1980 and 1990

Censuses

Suggested Citation

National Science Foundation, Nonacademic Scientists and

Engineers: Trends From the 1980 and 1990 Censuses,

NSF 95-306 (Arlington, VA, 1995).

Availability of Publications

Single copies are available free of charge from the Division

of Science Resources Studies, National Science Foundation, Arlington,

VA 22230. If you are a user of electronic mail and have access to

Internet, you may order publications electronically. Internet users

should send requests to pubs@nsf.gov. In your request, include the

NSF publication number and title, your name, and

a complete mailing address. Printed publications may also be ordered

by fax (703-644-4278). Publications should be received within 3 weeks

after receipt of request. See page iv for availability on the Science

and Technology Information System (STIS).

Telephonic Device for the Deaf

(703) 306-0090

CONTENTS

Section	Page

Data Issues.....................................................1

Highlights......................................................3

Table 1: General Characteristics........................3

Table 2: By Occupation..................................3

Table 3: By Region and State............................3

Table 4: Median Earnings................................3

Table 5: Ethnic Minorities and Women....................3

Table 6: Immigrant Scientists and Engineers.............3

List of Tables

1.	General characteristics of nonacademic scientists and

engineers: 1980 and 1990................................5

2.	Nonacademic scientists and engineers, by census

occupation: 1980 and 1990...............................7

3.	Nonacademic scientists and engineers, by State:

1980 and 1990...........................................9

4.	Nonacademic scientists and engineers, median earnings:

1979 and 1989..........................................11

5.	Nonacademic scientists and engineers, by sex and

ethnic minority: 1980 and 1990.........................13

6.	Immigrant nonacademic scientists and engineers:

percent of total, by educational level and age

group: 1980 and 1990...................................15

DATA ISSUES

This report presents a broad picture of the characteristics

of scientists and engineers (S&Es) outside academia and how

these characteristics changed between 1980 and 1990.

Data for this report come primarily from National Science

Foundation (NSF) tabulations of 1980 and 1990 Public Use

Microdata Samples (PUMS) of the decennial census provided

by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. Specifically, data for

S&Es in 1980 and their wage and salary income in 1979 comes

from the 1980 5-percent PUMS. Data for S&Es in 1990 and

their wage and salary income in 1989 comes from a reweighted

combined file of the 1990 1-percent and 5-percent PUMS.

Data for wage and salary income for all workers come from

the 1980 and 1990 1-percent PUMS. Decennial Census occupation

codes were used to identify S&Es. All postsecondary teachers

and individuals whose industry was identified as "colleges

and universities" were excluded to maintain a focus on

nonacademic S&Es. Technicians and technologist occupations,

though closely related to science and engineering, were

also excluded.

The counts of S&Es in this report do not agree with other

NSF reports and data on S&Es for a number of reasons.

First, many NSF reports are based upon field of degree

rather than occupation. On decennial census data, S&Es

can only be identified through an occupation variable

coded primarily through a write-in occupation question

on the decennial long form. These variations in defining

S&E result in obvious differences--the number of individuals

with a Ph.D. in biology will be different from the number

of individuals with Ph.D.'s whose occupation is biologist.

Second, the decennial censuses may classify the occupation

of many S&Es in ways that prevent their identification as

S&Es. For example, "post-secondary teacher, subject not

specified," "authors," "technical writers," various types

of managers, and various types of technicians are all

examples of occupation categories which may contain

unidentified scientists and engineers. It is largely

for this reason that this report makes no attempt to

examine changes in the characteristics of academic S&Es.

In NSF's own demographic surveys--the Survey of Doctoral

Recipients, the National Survey of College Graduates,

and the National Survey of Recent College Graduates--

special care is taken to reduce these problems in

identifying those whose occupations are in science

or engineering.

Around one-third of those with science and engineering

occupations on the 1980 and 1990 censuses appear to have

less than a bachelor's degree. Other data sources

typically use a minimum of a bachelor's degree in

defining S&Es. Thus it is important to consider

education level in most analytic uses of this data.

Comparisons between the 1980 and 1990 Census that use

education level are problematic due to differences in

how education was measured in the two censuses. In

1980, census long-form recipients were asked about the

number of years of education they had completed. In

1990, the education question was changed to ask about

degree completion rather than years in school. However,

it is possible to measure how close a comparison can

be made between the two measures, because a group of

the same individuals answered the two different versions

of the education question on the 1991 and 1992 Current

Population Survey (CPS).

A tabulation of a match between the 1991 and 1992 CPS

provided by David A. Jaeger of the Department of

Economics and Population Studies Center of the

University of Michigan1/ indicates that of individuals

with 16 or more years of completed education measured

by the 1980 education question, only 6.9 percent did

not indicate a bachelor's degree or higher in their

response to the 1990 question. By the same measures,

1.8 percent of those with less than 16 years do have

a bachelor's degree. Overall, using 16 years or more

of education as a measure overestimates the total

number of bachelor's degrees by 1.2 percent. This

report uses "bachelor's or higher" as an additional

breakdown of 1980/1990 differences in characteristics

but does not attempt finer comparisons by education

where there is more disagreement between the 1980

and 1990 education measures. Accordingly, great

care should be used in interpreting 1980/1990

changes reported by education.

_____________________________

1/ David J. Jaeger, Reconciling the Old and New Census

Bureau Education Questions: A Recommendation for

Researchers, Working Paper (Ann Arbor: University

of Michigan Population Studies Center, June 1984).

Earnings from wages and salaries are reported on each

decennial census for the previous year; i.e., 1979

and 1989. In this report 1979 earnings are reported

in 1989 dollars using the implicit price deflator for

personal consumption expenditures. In calculating

median earnings for this report, those with zero

earnings were excluded.

HIGHLIGHTS

Table 1: General Characteristics

Between 1980 and 1990 the population of nonacademic

scientists and engineers became older; more educated;

more likely to be attending school, more likely to be

self-employed; more black, Hispanic, and Asian; more

foreign born; more likely to report a disability; and

much more female. The proportion of female S&Es increased

from 12.6 to 22.2 percent from 1980 to 1990. Over

three-quarters of nonacademic S&Es work in the private

sector for a for-profit or non-profit company. However,

this share drops to 57.3 percent at the Ph.D. level,

where 24.7 percent work for government and 18.1 percent

are in some form of self-employment. The median education

level is a bachelor's degree, with 30.0 percent of

nonacademic S&Es in 1990 having less than a bachelor's

and only 5.3 percent with a doctorate.

Table 2: By Occupation

Overall the number of nonacademic S&Es increased by 64.4

percent, with a larger 74.0-percent increase in the number

with a bachelor's degree or higher. Computer systems analysts

and scientists; physical scientists not elsewhere classified,

n.e.c.; psychologists; and social scientists, (n.e.c.), all

more than doubled in number. The number of "operations and

systems researchers and analysts" more than tripled--

increasing by 250.2 percent. There were decreases in the number

of metallurgical and materials engineers; mining engineers;

agricultural engineers; mathematical scientists, n.e.c.; and

sociologists.

Table 3: By Region and State

All geographic regions and all but one State showed increases

in the number of S&Es. The slowest growth in the number of

S&Es, 41.1 percent, was in the East North Central region.

The fastest growth occurred in the South Atlantic region--

98.1 percent.

Table 4: Median Earnings

Median real earnings remained essentially stable for all major

occupation groups. Earnings growth ranged from a 7.9-percent

decline for social scientists to a 0.5-percent increase for

engineers. Over this 10-year period there was a 1.3-percent

decline in real median earnings for S&Es. This decline in

earnings occurred despite the small increases in both age and

education of the S&E population, and S&Es with bachelor's

degrees or higher actually experienced a slightly greater

decline. Younger S&Es (those under age 40) fared better

than older S&Es in each occupation group. For those with

a bachelor's degree or higher, the median earnings of younger

S&Es increased by 1.2 percent, whereas median earnings

declined by 5.1 percent for older S&Es.

Despite this decline, S&Es continue to earn more than the

national median for workers in all occupations. This is

true even at the Ph.D. level, where the 1989 median salary

for S&Es was $50,000, versus $43,000 for all Ph.D.'s.

Table 5: Ethnic Minorities and Women

Although representation of women and minorities varies greatly

among occupations, every occupational group showed increases

between 1980 and 1990 in the proportions of blacks, Hispanics,

Asians, and women. Over all nonacademic S&E occupations and

education levels, the proportion of blacks increased from 3.2

to 4.4 percent; Hispanics, from 2.2 to 3.1 percent; Asians,

from 4.2 to 6.0 percent; and women, from 12.6 to 22.2 percent.

Table 6: Immigrant Scientists and Engineers

Overall, the proportion of foreign-born S&Es increased from

9.1 to 11.0 percent between 1980 and 1990, with increases

occurring in all S&E occupational groups except social science.

The importance of foreign-born S&Es to the total numbers of

nonacademic S&Es increases with education level, rising to

22.6 percent of Ph.D.s in 1990. Both the greatest proportion

and the greatest increase in the proportion of foreign-born

S&Es occur for 45- to 54-year-olds, whose proportion increased

from 8.5 to 15.5 percent. Among Ph.D.s, engineers had the

greatest proportion of foreign born at 39.2 percent.