<i>"The U.S. awarded 22,500 doctorates in natural sciences and engineering in 2007, but more than half of them were awarded to foreign nationals....The report noted that 60% of temporary visa holders who earned doctorates in science in engineering in 1997 were working in the U.S. in 2007."</i><p>Ah, sweet irony...you rarely see it put so plainly in print. I wonder if the report noted the percentage of US natural science doctorates who have in-field employment after graduation? It might go a long way toward explaining why US students aren't doing it anymore.<p>As one of the people who filled out the survey in 2007, I think it's telling that even today, not all of my PhD friends who graduated in 2007 have jobs in their field (and no, I don't count "post-doctoral research" as a job). If the US wants more PhDs in the sciences, they're going to have to do something about the labor market for scientists. Right now, it's a sucker's bet, and smart kids know it.
But spending on r&d, in absolute terms, increased in the US as well as everywhere else, which is a win-win-win for everybody. It just happened to increase the most in China, but the US lead over China (why pick on China anyway?) is still huge, as the body of the article describes. Nice scaremongering headline, WSJ.