What makes science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education policy so important? These areas have historically propelled America into the world stage, and they constantly improve civilizations, driving them forward into new ages. However, America’s STEM fields have a major problem: a slowly diminishing work force.
STEM fields are constantly expanding, meaning more people are needed to fill new positions. Computer technology more advanced than it was in the 1980s, let alone ten years ago. Companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Dell, and HP have opened new job markets for Information Technology and software development. New medical discoveries are leading to new specialties, like immunology and robotic surgery, while physicists have concepts beyond quantum mechanics to explore. All of these growing work forces need new and specially trained STEM students.
Not only is the job market for STEM professions growing, a large chunk of the current workforce across the nation is beginning to retire. The baby boomers have entered their late 50s and early 60s, which means that the first large wave of retirement is on the horizon already. Those baby boomers, who have become experts in their fields, have started leaving for retirement, which means their positions need to be filled in addition to the new ones already discussed. The National Science Board reported in 2008 that of “Science and Engineering doctorate holders in the labor force, 40% are age 50 or over,” (National Science Board 3-6). When they soon retire, all of their expertise will be drained out of America’s science and engineering businesses, universities, and research and development companies. With new STEM professions and an increasing number of experienced workers retiring in already established STEM fields, the only remedy can be new, trained recruits.
This demand needs to be met with supply, as any good economist will tell you, and it is the growing demand and lack of supply that have already started to plague STEM professions. The Bureau of Labor Statistics “projects job growth of 22 percent for STEM occupations as a whole between 2004 and 2014.” However, the “number of graduates in [science and technology] areas, the U.S. produced just 148,000 in 2001 – the smallest number in two decades,” (STEM Education Caucus). The number of graduates that can fill the positions new fields require, or the positions baby boomers are leaving, is dwindling.
Due to the coming retirement wave of baby boomers as well as the creation of new STEM fields, the United States will soon have a shortage of STEM educated people in the work force. A deficiency of STEM specialists has always been the kiss of death for past civilizations (the Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empire, and the Spanish Empire for some example), and it is a problem that the United States currently faces. This is why STEM education policy needs to be on the forefront of America’s awareness.
- Adam Carl, Senior at Upper Arlington High School and Winter Intern at the Battelle Center
References
“STEM” occupations and job growth. (n.d.). Retrieved February 4, 2010, from Bureau of Labor Statistics website: http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2007/jun/wk4/art04.htm
Why is STEM Education Important? (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2010, from STEMEd Caucus STeering Committee website: http://www.stemedcaucus.org/content/documents/TalkingPoints.doc
National Science Board. 2008. Science and Engineering Indicators 2008. Two volumes. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation (volume1, NSB 08-01; volume 2, NSB 08-01A).
