Project Description

Data

Defining IT

Literature

Reports

 

IT Workforce: Retention of Women and Minorities

Supported by Grant # EIA 0089995 from the National Science Foundation
Principal Investigators: Paula Stephan and Sharon Levin

Defining IT:

IT Training

Drawing on the work of the IT Data Project, we have defined the following fields as IT trained in SESTAT:

  • Computer/information sciences
  • Computer science
  • Computer system analysts
  • Information service & systems
  • Other computer & information sciences
  • Computer and systems engineering
  • Electrical, electronics & communications engineering if the recipient also reported minor or second major areas of study in computer or information sciences or in computer engineering or if they went on to earn a higher degree in an IT field

This definition is based on up to the three highest degrees earned by an individual.

IT Occupations

There have been two reports in the past five years that draw on data from SESTAT to analyze the IT workforce: Building a Workforce for the Information Economy (National Research Council) and the IT Data Project (Richard Ellis and Lindsay Lowell). We have drawn heavily on these reports in deciding which fields in SESTAT to include as IT occupations. Fields that have been chosen include:

  • Computer analysts
  • Computer scientists, except system analysts
  • Information system scientists and analysts
  • Other computer and information science occupations
  • Computer engineers-software
  • Post-secondary teachers in computer and mathematical sciences
  • Computer engineers-hardware
  • Computer programmers

SESTAT does not consider programming to be a field within S&E. Thus, the only programmers picked up in SESTAT are those who were trained in an S&E field who work as a programmer or individuals trained out of S&E who were working in an S&E occupation in 1993.

Retention

Retention is defined by individuals who are retained in the IT workforce if they are trained in an IT field and subsequently work in an IT occupation.

An alternative definition of retention, which is also explored in this study, is defined by individuals who are observed in an IT occupation in 1993 and in subsequent years found working in an IT occupation.

Recruitment

Recruitment is defined as the entry of non-IT trained individuals into IT occupations.