Another Whack at the Stem Shortage Myth

Over at The Atlantic, Michael Teitelbaum has another crack at demolishing the "STEM shortage" myth. Looking over actual employment data, he finds: All have concluded that U.S. higher education produces far more science and engineering graduates annually than there are S&E job openings—the only disagreement is whether it is 100 percent or 200 percent more. Were there to be a genuine shortage at present, there would be evidence of employers raising wage offers to attract the scientists and engineers they want. But the evidence points in the other direction: Most studies report that real wages in many—but not all—science and engineering occupations have been flat or slow-growing, and unemployment as high or higher than in many comparably-skilled occupations. Right on all counts. I have taken many, many cracks at this subject myself. Heck, I've even said so in pieces at The Atlantic's own web site. But the "critical shortage of scientists and engineers" idea just refuses to go back into its hole, no matter how many times it's hit on the head. In this article, Teitelbaum doesn't go into the reasons for this, but he's been clear about it in recent appearances: So from where does the STEM hype stem? According to Teitelbaum — who has written a book on the subject, due out in March, titled “Falling Behind?: Boom, Bust and the Global Race for Scientific Talent” — some of it comes from the country’s longtime cycle of waxing and waning interest in science; attention se...
Source: In the Pipeline - Category: Chemists Tags: Business and Markets Source Type: blogs