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OCR for page 34
6
Intemational Comparisons
The characteristics of engineering work forces abroad are pertinent
to issues of international industrial competitiveness, and the greater
emphasis on product mad process technology abroad is a serious con-
cern, but the panel had too little specific information in these areas to
support precise conclusions. The impressive technical progress of
Japan led to a study by the panel of available data on that nation's
engineering capabilities, from which the following remarks are drawn.
The data must be viewed as approximate at best.
Throughout the 1970s, Japan produced at least twice as many B.S.
engineers per 10,000 population as the United States and on the order of
lo percept moreinabsolutenumbers {Table 13J. From 1965 to 1980, the
number of scientists and engineers employed in RED increased 30
percent in the United States, 82 percent in West Germany, 131 percent
in Japan, and 140 percent in the U.S.S.R. {Table 14~.
Definitional problems no doubt exist. The relatively high number of
scientists and engineers reported to be working in R&D in the U. S. S.R.,
for example, does not square with the apparent lag in that nation's
industrial technology. Even so, however, Japan is clearly producing
more technically trained people than the United States is.
It has been reported that only about half of lapan's engineers actually
enter the engineering profession. The rest become civil servants or
managers in industry. In fact, about half of Tapan's senior civil servants
and industrial directors are said to have engineering qualifications, a
34
OCR for page 35
INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS
35
TABLE 13 Output of Engineering B. S. Degrees for United States and
Japan: 1971, 1975, and 1980
Engineering Degrees {B. S. ~Engineering Degrees
{thousandsJ per 10,000 Populations
Year usAa Japanb'C USA Japan
1971 50.0 55.9 2.44 5.30
1975 46.9 65.4 2.19 5.86
1980 68.9 73.5 3.1 6.22
NOTE: Initial tabulations provided by National Center for Education Statistics.
aNational Center for Education Statistics.
bStatistical Abstract of Education, Science and Culture. 1981 ed. Ministry of Educa-
tion, Science and Culture, Japan.
CUNESCO Statistical Yearbook.
MU. S. Bureau of the Census.
TABLE 14 Scientists and Engineers Employed in
R&D, 1965-1980
% Increase Total
Country From 1965 to 1980 (thousands)
.
United States 30 645 (1980)
West Germany 82 111 {1977)
Japan 131 273 {1978)
U.S.S.R. 140 1,254 {1980)
SOURCE: Science Indicators, 1980 {Washington, D.C.: National
Science Board, 1981i.
circumstance that must be contributing to that nation's industrial suc
cess.
The data suggest that the concentration ratios for engineers in Tapa-
nese industry may be higher than in this country. To assess the effects of
high or low concentration ratios, however, one must compare the
ratios for more and less effective companies or nations in particular
industries, and the panel had too little information to do so. Even if the
data were available, one would have to look at other variables, includ-
ing management and national political decisions.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
west germany
