Re:    IEEE-USA Comments on the Draft Task Force Report on National Workforce Policies for Science and Engineering (NSB 03-69)

 Dear Dr. Eisenstein:

The IEEE-USA applauds the efforts of the National Science Board for increasing public awareness of the importance of the Science and Engineering Workforce, and particularly how government can improve its quality through increased investments and better policies. In fact, we support many of its recommendations, including but not limited to:

• Substantial new federal support to students and institutions to improve success in S&E study by American undergraduates from all demographic groups;

• Federal support for research and graduate education that responds to the real economic needs of students; and,

• Federal government action to attract and retain an adequate cadre of well-qualified pre-college teachers of mathematics, science and technology.

However, we are disappointed that the report ignores the most important resource of the S&E Workforce, current workers. Because of this omission, the report fails to address many important policy issues for the S&E workforce. These issues include: 1) the serious  unemployment risks that many engineers face during their careers; 2) the substantial numbers of mid-career and older engineers who are idle, because of unemployment, or who switch out of S&E careers because of age discrimination; 3) the need for government to support lifelong learning for post-university workers; 4) the structural changes in S&E workforce dynamics, such as technological disruptions, that can cause prolonged unemployment for S&E workers that has little connection to business cycles; 5) the impact of offshore outsourcing on future demand for S&E workers; and, 6) the rampant misuse of non-immigrant visas, both H-1B and L-1.

The report, as it stands now, paints a picture that diverges from reality in part because of questionable or selective use of statistics. For example, a key argument of the NSB is based on Figure 1(on page 12 of the draft report), which is used to show, "flat or declining domestic student interest in" engineering.  The Figure includes statistics from 1977 to 1998, even though data on engineering degree awards are available up to 2002. The more current data shows an increase, not a decrease, in engineering degrees.

Another example of the selective use of statistics is the second bulleted item on page 10 of the report, which states that, "50 percent of Federal S&E workers are estimated to retire over the next 10 years." There is no original source of data provided for this assertion, and it disregards the fact that the federal government has been downsizing its engineering workforce for the past decade. According to the OPM database, the Federal Government (all agencies) has reduced its Electronics Engineering positions by 13.3% (23,684 to 20,524) from September 1997 to December 2002.

The retirement of Federal S&E workers may well pose a problem in the future, but the scale and scope of that problem is exaggerated by the report’s selective use of a second-hand quote from a non-expert body. A much better approximation of future demand for Federal scientists and engineers can be estimated by a thorough analysis of the OPM databases.

In our opinion, the report provides a number of important recommendations but is overly focused on supply of S&E workers, with a disregard of demand. It is also flawed by a questionable use of statistics and ignores the most important resource of the U.S. S&E Workforce, current workers.

Accordingly we believe that the final draft will be substantially improved by including a significant section on current workers, and by presenting verifiable and up-to-date workforce statistics, including such major indicators of demand as data on compensation and unemployment.

IEEE-USA looks forward to working with the task force to improve the validity and utility of this important report. 

Sincerely,

James V. Leonard, P.E.
2003 IEEE-USA President