The U.S. Scientific and Technical Workforce

Concerns about the size and adequacy of the U.S. scientific, technical, engineering, and mathematics workforce have grown amid fears of a dwindling labor pool and concern that this may erode U.S. leadership in science and technology and could complicate mobilization of appropriate manpower for homeland security. In the past, such fears have failed to materialize, and surpluses have been more common than shortages. But this should not be grounds for complacency. Fundamentally, available data are inadequate for valid predictions. The RAND Corporation organized a conference to identify the limitations of the available data and explore potential improvements. The event brought together leading researchers, science agency policymakers, and statistical agency experts together to address ways to improve the data system for decisionmaking with respect to this workforce. This volume contains the proceedings of that conference, consisting of the papers delivered and discussed at the workshop, as well as RAND's synthesis of workforce data needs and opportunities for meeting those needs.