Labor Market Outcomes of STEM Master's Education

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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?