Editor’s note: This is the final article in a four-part series about the current job market.
President Barack Obama and other government officials might be emphasizing science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) jobs, but there is a substantial shortage of qualified employees in those fields.
According to a February study from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 0.3 job seekers per job opening in health fields and 0.4 applicants per opening in computer and mathematical science.
At Ohio University, Lonnie Welch, the Stuckey Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, said he has a $4,700 scholarship for a student in bioinformatics — a field that applies statistics and computer science to biology — that no students have expressed an interest in.
The problems with STEM jobs are further exacerbated by the fact that much of the workforce entered the field after being inspired by Sputnik and are rapidly approaching retirement age.
“There is an aging STEM workforce, there is increasingly competition globally for STEM talent and there is only marginal growth in the number of STEM degrees, and in some areas they are flat and falling,” said Brian K. Fitzgerald, executive director of the Business-Higher Education Forum, a group of business and higher education executives that focuses on economic problems.
Finding students who aspire to a STEM bachelor’s degree is difficult, as only 17 percent of high school seniors show proficiency in math and interest in a STEM career. Furthermore, Fitzgerald said that upon matriculation more than 50 percent of those with STEM majors overall switch fields, with engineering being the notable exception, as it loses 30 to 35 percent of its students.
“We work them to death and bore them to death and scare them to death, and these are really smart people who have an array of choices, and they’re voting with their feet,” Fitzgerald said. “They’re going to finance (and other fields). … It’s not like they’re dropping out of college, they’re choosing to move out of the STEM disciplines.”
Steven Pedigo, director of research and communities for the Creative Class Group, said that problems with math and science education at the high school level have led to graduates being hesitant to enter the fields. The Creative Class Group focuses on finding new ideas, research and strategies for businesses and the government.
“We haven’t made math and science skill sets or jobs ones that people want to invest in,” Pedigo said.
One major element of the problem with math and science education, Fitzgerald said, is that students are taught by people who obtained education majors first and math or science minors second, not those who major in the specific field. This results in lackluster educations and a lack of interest on the part of secondary students.
Furthermore, after that disinterest has been solidified it very rarely reverts into curiosity, while students in STEM disciplines are inclined to become disillusioned or frustrated.
“There is almost no in migration to STEM, it’s almost all out migration,” Fitzgerald said.
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