Labor Costs Account for Over Two-Thirds of U.S. Business R & D Performance in 2020

Labor costs accounted for $ 372 billion of U.S. business research and development expenditures in 2020 — or over two-thirds of the $ 538 billion in business R&D performance. In 2020, these labor costs included $ 300.0 billion in salaries, wages, and fringe benefits ; $ 48.3 billion in stock-based compensation ; and $ 23.5 billion in temporary staffing. This InfoBrief explores the labor costs of business R&D, highlighting selected characteristics over time and across industries. Data are from the 2020 Business Enterprise Research and Development Survey ( BERD ) , developed and cosponsored by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics within the National Science Foundation and by the Census Bureau, which collected and tabulated data for the survey.
Source: NSF - Statistics on U.S. Science and Engineering Resources - Category: Statistics Source Type: news