Demand for STEM Workers:

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• Demand for STEM Workers
• Past Job Trends, Outside Job Demand, and
  Uncertain Futures
• November 13, 2007
• B. Lindsay Lowell
• Institute for the Study of International
  Migration
• Georgetown University
• lowellbl_at_georgetown.edu
• Presentation at The Roundtable Series on
  Technology, Innovation, and American Primacy and
  the High-Level Roundtable Series on American
  Competitiveness, Council on Foreign Relations,
  New York City, November 13, 2007.

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Gauging DemandLong-Term Trend

• STEM labor force has grown more rapidly than all
  workers since 1950
• Information technology has been a major growth
  engine since the 1990s
• But yearly rate of growth has slowed over time,
  recent growth has been below long-term, linear
  trend and structural shift in unemployment may
  signal softening demand in STEM jobs proper.

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Generalized demandSE outside of SE
occupations

• Large proportion of SE educated persons work in
  non-SE type jobs
• How to measure SE job content?
• Substantial share of non-SE jobholders use SE
  education, but
• Surprising share of SE jobholders do not
• The number of SE educated individuals is greater
  than broadly-defined SE jobs

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Future Demand?

• Recall that recent trends suggest slowing growth
• The BLS projections are for high STEM growth,
  primarily computer occupations,
• STEM not only hi/large growth workforce
• Foreign born are a substantial presence

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