Unemployment figures among recent college grads do not support claim of STEM worker shortage

Unemployment figures among recent college grads do not support claim of STEM worker shortage

S. Krashen  November, 2013

 

If there is a shortage of STEM workers, there should be very little unemployment among recent college graduates with STEM majors, far less than among recent graduates in non-STEM fields.  

But according to Carnevale and Cheah (2013),  for the years 2010 and 2011, unemployment rates for recent STEM grads, with the exception of those who majored in chemistry and math, are not obviously lower than in many other fields and are even higher than those in several non-STEM fields.

Unemployment Rates

STEM fields

Engineering: 7.4%*

Computer Science, 8.7%,

Biology 7.8%,

Information Science, 14.7%.

Chemistry: 5.8%

Math: 5.9%

Non-STEM

Business: 7.3%

Education: 5.7%

Psychology: 9.2%

Recreation: 5.2%

Social work: 8.2%

English literature: 9.8%

Nursing: 4.8%

Journalism: 7%

Commercial Art and Graphic Design: 10.5%

Clearly, this data does not support the common view that there is a serious shortage of qualified STEM workers.  If there were, unemployment would be much less than in non-STEM fields.  The shortages seem to be in education, nursing and recreation.

*There was little difference among different kinds of engineering: civil (7.6%), electrical (7.6%), mechanical (8.1%), and general (7%).

Carnevale, A. and Cheah, B. 2013. Hard Times: College Majors, Unemployment, and Earnings. Georgetown University Public Policy Institute.

See also: Charette, R. 2013. The STEM crisis is a myth IEEE Spectrum. bit.ly/18DhN1V 

.