Research and innovation careers observatory dashboard

Understanding the knowledge and skills a country has to support and drive R&I means looking at the stocks and flows of its most highly qualified people. Doctoral education prepares and accredits people to lead research and is the foundation of the skilled workforce that knowledge-based economies depend on. Master's-level qualifications also play an important role, building the wider pool of advanced talent that underpins research and innovation. On average across the OECD, the number of graduates has risen at every level of advanced education and training since 2015, though trajectories vary across countries.

People with strong foundational skills are better equipped for the advanced learning and critical thinking that knowledge-based economies rely on, and they are more inclined to keep upskilling throughout their careers. The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) captures the science, mathematics and reading proficiency of 15-year-olds, while the OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) measures the literacy, numeracy and problem-solving skills that adults use in working life. Together they give complementary views of a country’s skills base.

This section presents selected viewpoints on who works in R&I and the employment conditions available to those with the advanced qualifications vital to supporting R&I activities. The balance of researcher employment across the business, higher education and government sectors shows the most common types of research careers in a country, while the prevalence of professional STEM jobs (science, engineering and ICT) indicates the scale of career opportunities available to people with high-level scientific and technical expertise. Earnings and job stability data give a sense of what countries can offer to attract and retain the highly qualified people who can contribute to R&I.

International flows of R&I talent often begin during initial training, as people pursue master's and doctoral degrees abroad. Some countries attract mobile students more successfully than others. Mobility does not stop at graduation: the labour market for doctorate holders is especially internationalised, reflecting global competition and researchers' pursuit of strong conditions, collaboration opportunities and state-of-the-art R&I facilities. Comparing the two sets of indicators can provide an indication of whether countries that attract large shares of students to advanced degree programmes go on to retain similar shares of foreign workers in their R&I labour markets. 

The digital traces left by authors of scientific publications can be used to track talent flows across borders, helping to overcome the limits of jurisdiction-specific data. Changes in author affiliations over time reveal patterns of mobility and how they relate to personal characteristics, productivity and working conditions. Such bibliometric data are often more timely than administrative or survey sources, but must be assessed carefully, as they cover certain groups and regions unevenly.