In year 2006, 54000 Europeans were researchers in the US. By the same year, there were 1.3 millions researchers in the EU15 labor force. Thus, the US based European researchers represented 4.2% of EU15 based researchers, which a significantly higher share than in 1990, when it was equal to 2.8%.
Expatriation is about a relatively small number of individuals, in 2006 leavers represented a little less than 1.1% of the EU15 working age population, this share has plateaued since the nineties. However, the skill selectivity of emigrants has increased throughout this period. This rising selectivity materializes only at the upper end of the educational ladder (masters, Phds and professional degrees) and involves individuals into occupations which are key to the knowledge economy. As a consequence, the share of researchers among expatriates has doubled between 1990 and 2006 (see the Graph).
The wage performance of Europeans in the US labor market reveals that these highly educated leavers compare favorably to the US natives with similar characteristics. Moreover, the most recent cohorts of emigrants receive a higher wage premium than the earlier ones; which is a further support that the human capital quality of Europeans that are moving to the US is increasing.