Private firms may be experiencing a shortage of graduates in science, technology, engineering and math disciplines, but it’s not for a lack of students. For many STEM disciplines, more undergraduate degrees are being awarded now than 10 or 20 years ago. More women are entering college, which in turn is changing the relative popularity of disciplines.
Some specific trends worth noting:
- Women undergraduates, growing in number faster than men, tend to take psychology and biology over physics or math.
- Women generally account for strong numbers in the arts.
- Foreign students, who often seek the physical sciences, temporarily decreased after the 9/11 attacks because of changes in visa rules.
- The dot-com boom in the late 1990s caused a run-up in computer and electrical engineering enrollment (with degrees four years later), but interest fell after the dot-com bust.
- Students view business degrees as the surest bet for finding a job and paying off college loans.
So what’s behind the worker shortfall? Although the number of graduates and job openings match up fairly well, people with STEM degrees often choose jobs in other fields that pay more or have higher perceived status. “Biology students become doctors; math majors go into finance,” says Nicole Smith, senior economist at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Others get M.B.A.s so they can take higher-salaried management positions, which makes it easier to pay off ever rising student debt.
For additional commentary read:
How to Make Science and Tech Jobs More Enticing to Undergrads
Graphic by Nathan Yau
This article was published in print as "How Science Degrees Stack Up."
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7 Comments
Add CommentI thought we were supposed to be scientists. Can we stop quoting this nonsense. There is a huge population bump in college right now so of course degrees are up. Rather than spin stuff why don't we actually try to understand stuff.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat said, vote for the Democratic Party, since they fund science and the Republicans ignore it, deny it, cut it's funding, and attack it (Except Newt Gingrich, but there are plenty of other reasons not to vote for him).
Science degrees may be "up"--but how many are awarded to foreign students? Answer: the vast majority, especially graduate degrees. How many jobs are there in the sciences for those with degrees? Extremely few--and after a few years without a job, noone want to hire you when there are jobs.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisProblem #1 with this article: the overall number of degrees awarded has gone up over the last 20 years... percentages would have been more useful than counts. #2 some of the majors listed under science shouldn't be there #3 article contained poor analysis in the trends section, either do some real analysis, or at least show citations backing up the speculations
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this2 problems
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1. the education is waaayyy astronomically priced that the bright ones in impovershed areas never get the opportunity and are the most likely to deliver results of their education.
2. 30-40% of the es of the Universities never reach their potential in the job market with the exception of the business grads. they have the ability to not be able to make it with a business so they create their own. You don't have that luxury in all the other fields.
Bonus: cut down on the least productive education. General Arts and the like produce very little for the education other than a piece of paper that has no calling.
No unexpected good news here. First, the big jumps in psych and biology are mostly fluff. The real action is physics, chemistry, math, engineering and to a lesser degree computer science. It's also likely that the best degrees (most useful) are dominated by foreign students.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs technology continues to advance we will have continued drop in the need for productive workers. This inevitably leads to an increase in fluff jobs and over inflated ego among management demanding money they really didn't earn. This allows more and more Americans to be little more than warm bodies and consumers. For example; professional athletes and actors or singers. They don't do anything useful but they get paid very well. Far out of proportion to what they are actually worth.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUntil Americans realize that workers that advance technology and science are worth far more than these parasites, we will continue to see an ever greater proportion of our economy grown by foreign born people. These people are increasingly taking their knowledge home to other countries to compete with us. Thus the steadily decreasing percentage of the global economy the USA provides.
I'm sad to see that Scientific American is buying into the idea that there is a shortage of graduates in science, technology, engineering and math disciplines. This is being used as an excuse to outsource work overseas. My experience is that there is not only sufficient talented people here in this country, but that there are not enough positions for those who already have degrees.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRight now the job market is so poor in technology that people with decades of experience can't find positions. I personally know of several people who are giving up and shifting out of technology as a career, people with considerable seniority and experience. Why would private firms claim to be experiencing a shortage of graduates and at the same time be getting rid of their talented people.
The fact is that there are few if any openings in technology anymore. Twenty years ago science and technology was an excellent career choice, but today I would not advise it as a career path for a student unless they planned to relocate overseas.