Minority groups have higher unemployment rates in science and engineering

The unemployment rate among scientists and engineers is higher for minorities than for Caucasians, according to a report released by the National Science Foundation on 5 March. The report also says that the unemployment rate among Asian scientists and engineers is higher for women than for men.

For example, while the unemployment rate for scientists and engineers was 3.6 per cent and 3.8 per cent for Caucasian men and women respectively in 2010, it was 7.4 per cent for Asian women and 4.7 per cent for Asian men. When it comes to underrepresented minorities, the unemployment rate was more than 6.5 per cent for both men and women. The NSF report also cited data demonstrating that women gain a smaller proportion of degrees in many science and engineering fields than their male counterparts, although their participation has grown over the last two decades in most of these disciplines. In psychology, women received more than 70 percent of the degrees, but in computer science and engineering, they got only 18 to 28 percent. When it comes to bachelors and masters degrees in science and engineering, NSF found that the share awarded to underrepresented minorities has been rising during the last 20 years. Since 1991, the greatest rise in the share of S&E bachelors degrees earned by underrepresented minorities has been in psychology, the social sciences and computer sciences. But the data also showed that the share of such degrees in engineering and the physical sciences awarded to underrepresented minorities has remained flat since 2000, and their participation in mathematics has dropped.