Biomedical and Behavioral Research Scientists: Their Training and Supply Volume I: Findings (1989) / Chapter Skim
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2. The Current Market for Biomedical and Behavioral Scientists
2. The Current Market for Biomedical and Behavioral Scientists
Pages 33-50
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From page 33... ...
Thus, foreign students contribute relatively little to the growth of biomedical and behavioral sciences work force. THE CHANGING LABOR MARKET FOR BIOMEDICAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENTISTS, 1973-1987 The size and composition of the scientist work force .
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From page 34... ...
Actual employment growth, 4.1 percent that year, was achieved by drawing new entrants from other fields. During the 1980s, the biomedical field averaged 4,500 job openings annually (1,080 ' scientists lost from deaths and ' retirements, 620 scientists lost from net mobility, and growth requirements of 2,800~.
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From page 35... ...
RECENT TRENDS IN THE LABOR MARKET FOR BIOMEDICAL SCIENTISTS Figure 2-5 displays patterns of employment for biomedical scientists in 1987 by employment sector and by primary work activity -- A&D or ~ 0.20c L4 0~10 ~5 _!
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From page 36... ...
Growth in Employment Figure 2-6 shows the growth in employment of biomedical scientists between 1973 and 1987. Total employment plus postdoctorates nearly doubled, from 43,000 in 1973 to 84,500 in 1987, an annual rate of growth of 4.9 percent.
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From page 37... ...
increased during this period, from 53.6 percent in 1973 to 60.5 percent in 1987.7 This was the result of two basic trends: a growth in the proportion of total employment made up of private industry, in which more than three-fourths of biomedical scientists are engaged in R&D; and an increase in the percentage of academic scientists who indicate that their primary work activity is R&D. The annual average increase in the number of biomedical scientists engaged in R&D has been 5.S percent for the 1973-1987 period, slightly higher than overall growth in the field.
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From page 38... ...
9Because death and retirement are a function of biological age and net mobility is a function of career age, the overall attrition rate of the work force is related to its career and biological age structure. In the 1980s, death and retirement were approximately 1.9 percent per year and net mobility approximately 1 percent per year.
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From page 39... ...
Average annual job openings and new Ph.D.s in the biomedical sciences, 1973-1979 and 1979-1987. People and institutions seem to have responded to this imbalance between job openings and new Ph.D.s in the biomedical sciences.~° Real wages increased for biomedical scientists in the late 1980s, as they did for all Ph.D.s.
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From page 40... ...
Nonclinical psychology degree holders have also been attracted to employment in clinical psychology.~3 Employment of psychologists increased at an annual rate of 3.2 percent from 1973- 1987. Postdoctoral appointments in psychology are few compared to biomedical fields, increasing from 259 in 1973 to 666 in 1987.
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From page 41... ...
Average annual job openings and new scientists engaged primarily in Ph.D.s in nonclinical psychology, 1973-1979 and 1979R&D averaged about 9 percent i4For a more detailed discussion of the model used to estimate scientist attrition, see Joe G Baker, "Biomedical/Behavioral Cohort Model: A Technical Paper," in Volume III of this report.
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From page 42... ...
Degree production in other behavioral sciences fell steadily, from 1,307 Ph.D.s in 1976 to 882 in 1987, mirroring the decline in annual openings. The number of job openings per new other behavioral sciences Ph.D.
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From page 43... ...
Extrapolating from this survey, it can be estimated that, at most, only 20-30 percent of the full-time faculty in all clinical departments are actively engaged in biomedical research. Several earlier studies also document the declining numbers of physicians entering careers in scientific investigation.
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From page 44... ...
labor force was made up of women but only about 22 and 34 percent of biomedical and behavioral scientists were female.26 The distribution of minorities in science differs even more sharply from that in the larger labor force: blacks and all other minorities except Asians are underrepresented by factors of 6 or 7. In addition, while the percentage of women in the scientific work force is growing at a relatively rapid pace, the growth in the number of racial and ethnic minority scientists is painfully slow.
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From page 45... ...
Comparable data are not available for physician/scientists. To determine whether there is an association between race or sex and the careers of biomedical and behavioral Ph.D.s, the committee examined predoctoral support, postdoctoral plans, and a career outcome of those in the doctoral labor force in the biomedical and behavioral sciences.2i Figure 2-14 indicates that the distribution of NIH predoctoral support to graduate students is not independent of race and sex in some cases.
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From page 46... ...
The underrepresentation of minority graduate students with NIH support is surprising, given major efforts to target minorities within NIH/ADAMHA. In addition to the MARC program, noted in the Executive Summary, NIH provides summer research apprenticeships for minority high school students, research grant supplements for projects that employ minority students or faculty, and strong directives to grant applicants and internal staff concerning procedures for recruiting minorities.22 Despite these efforts, the growth of the minority doctoral population in these fields has been slow.
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From page 47... ...
The data in Table 2-1 reflect an average annual growth rate of about 4.7 percent in the size of the total labor force between 1977 and 1987. During that time period, the percentage of women in both doctoral fields grew substantially, to more than 20 percent of the biomedical work force and more than one-third of the behavioral scientists.
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From page 48... ...
Foreign students who are permanent residents at the time they earn their doctorates 24Another normal outcome, in the biomedical sciences at least, is that of postdoctoral study. Those reporting current postdoctoral study are eliminated from the denominators of percentages reported in Figure 2-16 and the corresponding appendix table.
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From page 49... ...
In the life sciences and the social/behavioral sciences, consequently, foreign recipients of U.S. doctorates comprise a comparatively small part of the increases in the doctoral work force -- approximately 6 and 4 percent respectively -- in contrast to engineering, where they contribute 37 percent of the growth.26 25If we consider all foreign degree recipients, the proportion staying here to work goes up to about 40 percent.
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