STEM Education: The Future of the U.S. Economy

Doomsday political rhetoric coupled with a slowly recovering economy would have you believe a bleak future for our nation. Donald Trump has harnessed this unease and blamed tech innovation for displacing American jobs. And some financial experts who shout for attention are warning that in the new economy workers will simply subsist, while technology thrives.

The latest job numbers tell a different story. While the current employment rate remains fairly steady at five percent, more than five million jobs are currently unfilled.

In a recent article for MarketWatch, Satyajit Das wrote tech is “tak[ing] over the economy” and displacing our jobs. This “subsistence existence,” he said, will come to fruition if we do not prepare our nation now for the shift in technological employment. “Technology has exacerbated declines in employment and incomes by eliminating tasks and ‘de-skilling’ many jobs,” Das writes.

To the contrary, technology has increased the need for technical degrees and skills. The most common complaint I hear from our more than 2,200 consumer technology member companies is that they need many more qualified graduates with technical and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) backgrounds – the supply does not meet our expanding demand.  

As with any disruptive technology there will be job displacement, which is unfortunate but nothing new. This aversion to new technology began in the 1800’s with the displacement of artisan weavers by mechanized looms. Toll collectors, buggy drivers or even cashiers have also seen lost job opportunities as technology provides a more efficient approach. “Technological unemployment” only exists when we, as a nation, do not prepare those that are displaced by technology to adapt their skills and find new work in other fields. 

Employment and productivity complement each other. Job losses in certain occupations will always occur with the advent of new technology, but will be accompanied by gains in other fields. Just think of the 1.66 million people employed in the App Economy – more than double the number of jobs in 2013, and especially remarkable considering the iPhone debuted only nine years ago

The bigger issue is that colleges aren’t producing graduates with the necessary skills to fill them. Rather than resist technology, we should invest early on in K-12 education programs, colleges and alternative higher and continuing education programs to avoid talent shortages in the future.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates that occupations in STEM fields will grow to more than nine million between 2012 and 2022 – an increase of about one million jobs over 2012 levels. Many of these STEM jobs are directly related to technology – BLS projects software developers to have more than 200,000 job opening between 2012 and 2022.

Das correctly points out that U.S. median earnings have stagnated for decades, after adjusting for inflation. But technology isn’t to blame. The source of flat-lining wages is fiercely disputed, but one theory is that rising benefit costs – such as employer-funded health care or retirement accounts – may be limiting wages. Benefit costs have risen about 60 percent since 2001.

What Das fails to mention is that jobs in science and technology fields offer higher-than-average incomes. Studies consistently find engineering fields are among the highest paying college majors. And the demand for graduates in these degrees continues to grow. Average wages for STEM occupations are nearly double the average wages of non-STEM workers. Many of the top-paying occupations are related to engineering. 

More, unemployment rates for engineers, scientists and technologists are generally lower than other fields, according to the National Science Foundation, which tracks employment across science and engineering fields.

Das further admonishes technology companies for not being labor-intensive. He writes, “many new industries are not labor-intensive, and when they are, the tasks are outsourced to the cheapest supplier in the world.” I suggest Das look to tech companies such as Uber, Lyft or Airbnb. Lyft lets more than 300,000 drivers be their own boss, and that figure doesn’t include their office and corporate staff. Uber has more than 400,000 drivers in the U.S. alone. And Airbnb has over 640,000 hosts who have profited from the innovative homesharing platform. 

We need to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation to create more jobs. High-tech industries are a crucial part of the U.S. economy, accounting for about 12 percent of total employment and contributing about 23 percent of output.

But technology shouldn’t be feared – it should be embraced. Advancements in technology, medicine and science have allowed us to live longer, healthier, more connected and better lives. With the proper preparation of our schools and colleges for the impending technological shift in the workforce, we can establish a pipeline of prepared workers in science, technology, engineering and math – that’s where the jobs of tomorrow will be.

We as humans tend to resist change. Innovation and advancement are disruptive, alter the status quo and sometimes make us uncomfortable. But they are also inevitable forces that change our lives – and often the entire human condition – for the better.