Labor Market Outcomes of STEM Master's Education

2012年，美国院校授予了超过16万名理工科硕士学位；十年前，这个数字还不到10万。在某些领域，硕士学位是最初就业和职业发展的理想（如果不是必需的话）资格。伴随着劳动力市场需求的增长，美国劳工统计局（Bureau of labor Statistics）的一项评估显示，未来10年，要求入门级硕士学位的工作岗位将增长18%。随着美国经济中硕士学位持有者数量的增长，了解这些人如何对美国标普企业产生影响至关重要。该项目的目的是研究美国的劳动力产出、职业流动性和科学与工程硕士教育的价值。该项目旨在丰富公众对硕士教育的持续支持和投资的讨论，并提出一个框架，以国家数据收集工作为核心，将硕士学位的生产与劳动力和经济目标联系起来。该项目将产生原创性研究，采用全国大学毕业生调查（NSCG）的数据，广泛探索以下调查领域：移民、职业流动性、硕士教育的个人货币和非货币收益-成本关系。该项目将包括一个利益相关者会议，将研究结果与研究生院长、劳动力和行业领导者以及联邦数据专家的见解结合起来，重点讨论三个问题：(1)如何将现有数据用作评估硕士教育劳动力市场结果的指标？(2)现有数据如何促进硕士教育与国家和地区层面的劳动力需求之间的一致性？3)如何加强现有的国家数据收集工作，包括NSCG，以更好地捕捉其他劳动力市场结果的评估指标，如随后的职业流动性和硕士学位持有者的满意度？

In 2012, over 160,000 master's degrees were awarded in science and engineering fields by U.S. institutions; ten years earlier, it was less than 100,000. In some fields, the master's degree is the desired (if not required) qualification for initial employment and professional advancement. Accompanying the growth and labor market need is an assessment by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that jobs that require a master's degree at entry-level will grow by 18% in the next decade. As the number of master's degree holders in the U.S. economy grows, it is critically important to understand how these individuals have an impact on the U.S. S&E enterprise. The purpose of this project is to examine workforce outcomes, career mobility and the value of a master's education in science and engineering in the U.S. The project seeks to enrich discussions about continued public support for and investment in master's education, and suggest a framework for linking the production of master's degrees with workforce and economic goals using national data collection efforts as the centerpiece.The project will produce original research that employs data from the National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG) to broadly explore these domains of inquiry: migration, career mobility, and individual monetary and non-monetary benefit-cost relations for master's education. The project will include a stakeholder meeting to synthesize findings of the research with insights from graduate deans, workforce and industry leaders and federal data experts focused on three questions: (1) How can existing data be used as metrics for labor market outcomes assessment of master's education?; (2) How can existing data facilitate alignment between master's education and workforce needs at the national and regional levels?; and 3) How can current national data collection efforts, including the NSCG, be augmented to better capture other labor market outcomes' assessment metrics, such as subsequent career mobility and satisfaction of master's degree holders?