A recent report in USA Today states that most STEM graduates are not getting STEM jobs. And the number reported is high. 74% of those with a bachelor degree in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) do not work in STEM jobs. Other alarming statistics showed that the likelihood of landing a STEM job varies by major. The percentages of landing a job were: 50% of those focused on engineering, computers, math, and statistics; 26% of those with a concentration on physical science; then down to 10% for those with majors in psychology; and finally only 7% for graduates who studied social science.
Now, they did say that STEM graduates had relatively low unemployment, but they are employed in areas other than what they studied. So what is STEM achieving? It appears to be developing a group of graduates that, most likely, have high student loan debt without a greater chance of landing a job in their field of study.
The bit of good news from this report was that those with engineering degrees have the highest earnings - at $92,200 - and note those are mostly men in that field. While there's been a strong push to get women in the field, only 14% of women are engineers, according to the Census' 2012 American Community Survey. Women do hold better representation in math and statistics at 45%; in life sciences at 47%, and in social sciences at 47%.
Obviously the lack of skilled workers is due to large corporations outsourcing and cutting costs for so many years. This takes us up to present day, with the realization that we need to educate and grow our workforce from a young age. It didn't take long to watch manufacturing knowledge unravel, but it's taking a long time to build up this educated workforce the U.S. so desires.