Thursday, February 23, 2012

Chart of the week: why STEM should be TEsm

Credit: Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce
There's a great deal of hoohah about science and technology careers right now and how they're the Jobs of the Future. While I think that's mostly correct, this graph should be a corrective of a sort. It's by the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, and it's their projection of what the STEM job market will look like in 2018. I've added the red letters for emphasis. They project that fully 51% of STEM jobs will be computer (that is, Technology) related.

So rather than saying that STEM careers are our future, we should really be saying that TE careers will be our younger siblings' and kids' futures and SM careers will be growing at their piddlingly slow rate. (2%, IIRC)
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4 comments:

  1. Unstable IsotopeFebruary 23, 2012 at 8:10 PM

    Yes, this. It doesn't help chemists to be rolled into the same general category as IT professionals. Finally, an analysis that makes sense to me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousFebruary 24, 2012 at 7:57 AM

    The small growth is compounded with stupid HR decisions. It would be great if hiring decisions were made on meritocracy. However they aren't. If you are a white male in one of these fields growth is negative. You have to walk on water to find a job.

    ReplyDelete
  3. bbooooooyaFebruary 24, 2012 at 8:45 AM

    "It would be great if hiring decisions were made on meritocracy"

    It would also be great if we had hover cars and if beer had no calories. Hiring decisions have never been based solely on merit and never will be, at least as long as humans make the decisions.

    "You have to walk on water to find a job."

    I actually think that would work against you: most hiring managers would see it as an inability to swim.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousFebruary 26, 2012 at 9:15 PM

    They also should've broken down the engineering fields (at least partially) as well. B/c the chemical engineer's prospects are vastly different than those of an EE, for instance. @Anon- If anything, it is more difficult for a woman or minority in this economic climate. I guess they have to walk on... air? And yes, a meritocracy would be nirvana but, as Booya said, that has never existed.

    ReplyDelete

looks like Blogger doesn't work with anonymous comments from Chrome browsers at the moment - works in Microsoft Edge, or from Chrome with a Blogger account - sorry! CJ 3/21/20

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