This research extends previous work by the authors, “The Role of Research Universities in the Israeli R&D System”, by investigating the possible shortage of graduates with academic degrees in S&T. Contrary to common views, we conclude that there currently is no overall shortage in the number of S&T degree recipients. Some 10,000 receive a first degree in S&T each year, in addition to some 4,000 who receive graduate degrees.
Such annual numbers constitute about 10% of the academic S&T occupations in the Israeli workforce. The salaries of such degree holders, while higher than that of most other academicians, have not grown faster in recent years than average salaries in the business sector. Our conclusions are based on comprehensive aggregate data from several sources: labor, income as well as R&D and innovation surveys by the Israeli CBS, and public data from a high-tech placement company. There are indications that shortages do exist in some subfields, such as computer hardware and software development, while surpluses exist in other scientific occupations.
