The U.S. National Science Board (NSB) is congressionally mandated to release summary reports on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), from nine Indicator reports, in even years. The 2024 edition of The STEM Labor Force: Scientists, Engineers, and Skilled Technical Workers report was published on May 30th, 2024, by the NSB.
The State of U.S. Science and Engineering 2024 provides “Key Takeaways,” mined from comprehensive data gathered by The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). Some of them include:
- International students “accounted for about a third of science and engineering (S&E) master’s and doctoral degree recipients… in 2021.” Also, foreign-born individuals made up 19% of all STEM workers and 43% of doctorate-level scientists and engineers.”
- Women make up 35% of all STEM workers.
- The STEM workforce makes up nearly a quarter of the U.S. workforce with more than half of those being “Skilled Technical Workers” who do not possess a four-year degree.
- The U.S. “is the largest performer of research and development” with China not being comparatively far behind as second.
- Not surprisingly, the U.S. and China “are the largest contributors to a global network of artificial intelligence (AI) research publishing.”
Overall, this summary report provides information on the U.S. STEM education and workforce, U.S. global performance and funding of research and development, and how major countries contribute to global science and engineering endeavors. This report and related S&E Indicators can be found online at the U.S. National Science Foundation’s website: https://www.nsf.gov/nsb/.
