The STEM Labor Force of Today: Scientists, Engineers,and Skilled Technical Workers

Key takeaways:

• By including workers of all educational backgrounds and the wide variety of occupations that require significant science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) knowledge and expertise, the STEM workforce represented 23% of the total U.S. workforce in 2019.
• A little over half of STEM workers do not have a bachelor’s degree and work primarily in health care (19%), construction trades (20%), installation, maintenance, and repair (21%), and production occupations (14%).
• Unemployment was lower among the STEM labor force (2%) compared to the non-STEM labor force (4%) in 2019, and this pattern persisted even during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• In 2019, STEM workers had higher median earnings ($55,000) than non-STEM workers ($33,000).
• Women are about 34% of STEM workers, representing 44% of those with a bachelor’s degree or higher and 26% of those without a bachelor’s degree.
• Although Blacks or African Americans, Hispanics or Latinos, and American Indians or Alaska Natives represent 30% of the employed U.S. population, they are 23% of the STEM workforce due to underrepresentation of these groups among STEM workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher.
• Foreign-born workers accounted for 19% of the STEM workforce and 45% of a subset of STEM workers (i.e., mathematical and computer scientists, physical scientists, life scientists, social scientists, and engineers) with doctoral degrees in 2019.

Individuals in the STEM workforce make important contributions to improving a nation’s living standards, economic growth, and global competitiveness. They fuel a nation’s innovative capacity through their work in research and development (R&D) and in other technologically advanced activities, collectively referred to as the science and engineering (S&E) enterprise. The goal of this report is to provide information about the STEM workforce that enables insight into how the U.S. S&E enterprise is positioned to meet the needs of and compete in an increasingly technologically advanced economy, both nationally and internationally.

For this cycle, the report integrates two major components of the STEM workforce: workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher and workers without a bachelor’s degree, also referred to as the skilled technical workforce (STW). The inclusion of the STW recognizes the importance of these workers in adapting and maintaining new processes and technologies that are integral to the U.S. S&E enterprise and the increasing use of these skills across a broad range of occupations. As such, the STEM workforce described in this report includes occupations that have historically been known to require STEM skills and expertise (e.g., life sciences, physical sciences, engineering, mathematics and computer sciences, social sciences, and health care) as well as occupations that are not typically considered STEM fields but that do, in fact, require STEM skills (e.g., installation, maintenance and repair, construction trades, and production occupations). This major shift in the broad understanding of the STEM workforce more than doubles the number of workers classified as part of the STEM workforce by including 16 million workers with at least a bachelor’s degree and 20 million without a bachelor’s degree.

Workers in STEM occupations experience lower rates of unemployment and higher salaries than those in non-STEM occupations, and employment in many STEM occupations is expected to grow. However, this projected growth may be unevenly distributed across the United States: 20 metropolitan areas employ disproportionately more workers at all education levels in life sciences, physical sciences, engineering, mathematics and computer sciences, and social sciences. STEM workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher are employed proportionately more in coastal states, whereas STEM workers without a bachelor’s degree, the STW, are proportionately more in states in the South and Midwest regions of the United States.

Like their non-STEM counterparts, most STEM workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher are employed by the business sector, reflecting the dominance of this sector among employers. However, this is not the case for STEM doctorate holders. In 2019, 4-year academic institutions (39%) and for-profit businesses (35%) employed similar proportions of those with doctoral degrees in a STEM field, although the 4-year academic institution share has declined since 1993 (45%). In academia, doctorate holders are shifting from faculty to nonfaculty positions and from teaching as a primary activity to R&D as a primary activity. In addition, full-time faculty as a percentage of all doctoral academic employment has been in steady decline for four decades, decreasing from about 90% in the early 1970s to 70% in 2019.

Typically, workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher in STEM occupations often have a degree in a STEM field. However, many workers with a STEM education background pursue careers outside of STEM, indicating the applicability of STEM skills and expertise across a broad range of occupations. For example, STEM degree holders are employed in large numbers (more than 1 million in each) as financial or personnel specialists, executive-level managers or education administrators, and sales and marketing workers. In addition, about 70% of STEM degree holders who worked in occupations outside of STEM reported that their occupation was closely or somewhat related to their degree field. Overall, only 37% of workers with their highest degree in computer and mathematical sciences, life sciences, physical sciences, social sciences, or engineering worked in occupations classified as scientists or engineers. In contrast, 71% of workers with their highest degree in a health-related field, STEM education field, or technology or technical field worked in occupations related to these degree fields.

Less information is available regarding the education and training pathways for STEM workers without a bachelor’s degree, which include associate’s degrees, certificate programs, apprenticeships, certifications, and licenses. However, STEM workers without a bachelor’s degree earn associate’s degrees and hold certifications and licenses at higher rates than their non-STEM counterparts.

Although data about workers without a bachelor’s degree in STEM are limited, several key findings are evident by comparing the two components of the STEM workforce, in particular, information relevant to broadening participation for historically underrepresented groups: women, Blacks or African Americans, Hispanics or Latinos, and American Indians or Alaska Natives. The proportion of women with a bachelor’s degree or higher in the STEM workforce is greater than those without a bachelor’s degree in STEM. Women in the STEM workforce with at least a bachelor’s degree exceeded their 50% representation within the U.S. employed population in some STEM occupations. For example, among health care workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher, women were 70% of the workforce in 2019; within health care, however, women tended to be employed in the lower-paying occupations.

The number and proportion of workers from an underrepresented race or ethnicity have increased within the STEM workforce with Hispanic or Latino workers mostly closing the gap in representation. Although those from certain races or ethnicities are underrepresented among STEM workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher, the degree to which they are underrepresented varies across STEM occupations. In 2019, Blacks or African Americans were 12% of the employed U.S. population. However, Blacks or African Americans represented 6% of workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher who were classified as computer and mathematical scientists but represented 13% of computer network architects and 17% of information security analysts. Similarly, Hispanic or Latino Americans were comparable to or proportionately more than their representation in the U.S. employed population in several occupations in the social sciences. Many factors can contribute to the uneven concentration of underrepresented minority races or ethnicities across STEM occupations, and further research is needed to understand the barriers to broadening participation among them.

In addition to Americans born in the United States, a substantial proportion of the STEM workforce is foreign born, making up 23% of this workforce with a bachelor’s degree or higher. Foreign-born workers are particularly concentrated among those at the doctorate level who work as computer and mathematical scientists, engineers, and life scientists. China and India are the leading birthplaces for foreign-born STEM doctorate holders in the United States. Many U.S.-trained foreign born doctorate holders in STEM fields (i.e., mathematics and computer sciences, physical sciences, life sciences, social sciences, and engineering) on temporary visas expect to remain within the United States a least a year after receiving their degrees. Many of these noncitizen doctorate recipients become permanent residents or U.S. citizens. Thus, immigration represents a key component to building the capacity of the U.S. STEM workforce.

The U.S. STEM workforce is large and diverse in occupations, education level, and nationality. Although STEM workers generally have better labor market outcomes compared to non-STEM workers, these benefits are unevenly distributed across region, sex, race, or ethnicity. While participation by historically underrepresented groups has grown, these groups continue to be less well represented, which may impede the innovative capacity of the U.S. S&E enterprise. Broadening participation in STEM and ensuring equitable distribution of benefits from STEM fosters the development of a robust STEM workforce, which is critical for improving the nation’s living standards, providing economic growth, and maintaining global competitiveness.

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주요 이점:

모든 학력의 근로자와 상당한 과학, 기술, 공학, 수학(STEM) 지식과 전문 지식을 필요로 하는 다양한 직업의 근로자를 포함함으로써 STEM 노동력은 2019년 미국 전체 노동력의 23%를 차지했다.
STEM 근로자의 절반 이상이 학사 학위를 가지고 있지 않으며 주로 의료(19%), 건설업(20%), 설치, 유지보수 및 수리(21%), 생산직(14%)에서 일하고 있다.
2019년 비STEM 노동력(4%)에 비해 STEM 노동력(2%)의 실업률은 낮았고, 이러한 패턴은 코로나19 대유행 기간에도 지속되었다.
2019년 STEM 근로자는 비 STEM 근로자(33,000달러)보다 중위소득(55,000달러)이 더 높았다.
여성은 STEM 근로자의 약 34%로 학사 이상 학력자의 44%, 학사 미취득자의 26%를 차지한다.
흑인 또는 아프리카계 미국인, 히스패닉 또는 라틴계 미국인, 아메리칸 인디언 또는 알래스카 원주민이 미국 고용 인구의 30%를 차지하지만, 학사 이상의 STEM 근로자 중에서 이러한 그룹이 과소 대표되어 STEM 근로자의 23%이다.
2019년 박사 학위를 가진 STEM 노동자 중 외국 태생 노동자가 19%, STEM 노동자(수학 및 컴퓨터 과학자, 물리 과학자, 생명 과학자, 사회 과학자 및 엔지니어)의 하위 집합 중 45%를 차지했다.
STEM 노동력의 개인들은 국가의 생활 수준, 경제 성장, 그리고 세계 경쟁력을 향상시키는 데 중요한 기여를 한다. 그들은 연구 개발(R&D)과 과학 및 엔지니어링(S&E) 기업으로 통칭되는 다른 기술적으로 진보된 활동을 통해 국가의 혁신 역량을 촉진한다. 이 보고서의 목표는 미국 S&E 기업이 국내 및 국제적으로 점점 더 기술적으로 발전하는 경제에서 어떻게 위치하고 경쟁할 수 있는지에 대한 통찰력을 제공하는 STEM 인력에 대한 정보를 제공하는 것이다.

이 주기를 위해, 보고서는 STEM 인력의 두 가지 주요 구성 요소를 통합합니다. 즉, 학사 이상의 학위를 가진 근로자와 학사 학위가 없는 근로자이며, STW(Skilled Technical Workforce)라고도 합니다. STW의 포함은 미국 S&E 기업에 필수적인 새로운 프로세스와 기술을 적응하고 유지하는 데 있어 이러한 근로자의 중요성과 광범위한 직업에 걸쳐 이러한 기술의 사용을 증가시키는 것을 인식한다. 이와 같이, 본 보고서에 기술된 STEM 인력은 역사적으로 STEM 기술과 전문성을 필요로 하는 것으로 알려진 직업(예: 생명과학, 물리과학, 공학, 수학 및 컴퓨터 과학, 사회과학, 일반적으로 STEM 분야로 간주되지 않지만 실제로 STEM 기술을 필요로 하는 직업(예: 설치, 유지보수 및 수리, 건설업 및 생산직). STEM 노동력에 대한 광범위한 이해의 이러한 큰 변화는 적어도 학사 학위를 가진 1,600만 명의 노동자와 학사 학위를 가지지 않은 2,000만 명의 노동자를 포함함으로써 STEM 노동력의 일부로 분류되는 노동자의 수를 두 배 이상 증가시킨다.

STEM 직업의 근로자들은 비 STEM 직업의 근로자들보다 낮은 실업률과 높은 급여를 경험하며, 많은 STEM 직업의 고용은 증가할 것으로 예상된다. 그러나 이 예상 성장은 미국 전역에 불균형적으로 분포되어 있을 수 있다: 20개 대도시 지역은 생명과학, 물리과학, 공학, 수학 및 컴퓨터 과학, 사회과학의 모든 교육 수준에서 불균형적으로 더 많은 노동자를 고용하고 있다. 학사 이상의 STEM 근로자는 해안 주에서 비례적으로 더 많이 고용되는 반면, STW인 학사 학위가 없는 STEM 근로자는 비례적으로 미국의 남부 및 중서부 지역에서 더 많이 고용된다.

STEM 이외의 직원들과 마찬가지로, 학사 이상의 학위를 가진 대부분의 STEM 근로자들은 사업 부문에 고용되어 있으며, 이는 고용주들 사이에서 이 부문이 우세함을 반영한다. 그러나 STEM 박사학위 소지자의 경우는 그렇지 않다. 2019년에는 4년제 대학(39%)과 영리기업(35%)이 STEM 분야 박사학위 소지자와 비슷한 비율을 고용했지만, 4년제 대학의 점유율은 1993년(45%) 이후 감소했다. 학계에서는 박사학위 소지자들이 교수직에서 비교수직으로, 1차 활동인 교수직에서 연구개발직으로 이동하고 있다. 또한 전체 박사학위 취득자 중 전임교원이 차지하는 비율은 1970년대 초 약 90%에서 2019년 70%로 감소하는 등 40년간 꾸준히 감소하고 있다.

일반적으로 STEM 직종에서 학사 이상의 학위를 가진 근로자는 STEM 분야에서 학위를 가진 경우가 많다. 그러나 STEM 교육 경력이 있는 많은 근로자들은 STEM 이외의 직업을 추구하며, 이는 STEM 기술과 전문 지식이 광범위한 직업에 적용 가능함을 나타낸다. 예를 들어 STEM 학위 소지자는 재무 또는 인사 전문가, 임원급 관리자 또는 교육 관리자, 영업 및 마케팅 인력으로 대량(각각 100만 명 이상)으로 고용된다. 또한, STEM 이외의 직업에서 일한 STEM 학위 소지자의 약 70%가 자신의 직업이 자신의 학위 분야와 밀접하거나 다소 관련이 있다고 보고했다. 전체적으로 컴퓨터 및 수리과학, 생명과학, 물리과학, 사회과학 또는 공학 분야에서 가장 높은 학위를 가진 노동자의 37%만이 과학자 또는 엔지니어로 분류되는 직업에서 일했다. 반면 보건 관련 분야, STEM 교육 분야 또는 기술 또는 기술 분야에서 가장 높은 학위를 가진 근로자의 71%는 이러한 학위 분야와 관련된 직종에서 일했다.

학사 학위가 없는 STEM 근로자를 위한 교육 및 훈련 경로에 대한 정보는 적게 제공되며, 여기에는 준학사 학위, 자격증 프로그램, 견습, 자격증 및 면허증이 포함됩니다. 그러나 학사 학위가 없는 STEM 근로자는 준학사 학위를 취득하고 STEM이 아닌 근로자보다 더 높은 비율로 자격증과 면허증을 보유하고 있습니다.

STEM 학사 학위가 없는 근로자에 대한 데이터는 제한적이지만, STEM 근로자의 두 가지 구성 요소, 특히 여성, 흑인 또는 아프리카계 미국인, 히스패닉 또는 라틴계, 특히 역사적으로 대표성이 낮은 그룹의 참여 확대와 관련된 정보를 비교함으로써 몇 가지 핵심 결과가 분명하다, 그리고 아메리칸 인디언이나 알래스카 원주민들. STEM 노동력에서 학사 이상의 여성의 비율은 STEM 학사 학위가 없는 여성보다 더 크다. 적어도 학사 학위를 가진 STEM 노동력의 여성들은 일부 STEM 직업에서 미국 고용 인구 내에서 그들의 50%를 초과했다. 예를 들어, 학사 이상의 학위를 가진 의료 종사자 중 여성은 2019년 노동 인구의 70%를 차지했지만, 의료 분야에서는 여성이 저임금 직종에 고용되는 경향이 있었다.

대표성이 낮은 인종이나 민족 출신 노동자의 수와 비율은 에스템 노동력 내에서 증가했고, 히스패닉 또는 라틴계 노동자들은 대부분 대표성 격차를 좁혔다. 비록 특정 인종이나 민족 출신의 사람들이 학사 이상의 학위를 가진 STEM 근로자들 사이에서 과소 대표되지만, 그들이 과소 대표되는 정도는 STEM 직업에 따라 다르다. 2019년, 흑인 또는 아프리카계 미국인은 미국 인구의 12%를 차지했다. 그러나 흑인 또는 아프리카계 미국인은 컴퓨터 및 수학 과학자로 분류되는 학사 이상 근로자의 6%를 차지했지만 컴퓨터 네트워크 설계자의 13%, 정보 보안 분석가의 17%를 차지했다. 마찬가지로, 히스패닉 또는 라틴 아메리카계 미국인들은 사회과학 분야의 여러 직업에 종사하는 미국의 고용 인구와 비슷하거나 비례적으로 더 많았다. 많은 요인들이 STEM 직업 전반에 걸쳐 과소 대표되는 소수 인종이나 민족의 불균등한 집중에 기여할 수 있으며, 그들 사이의 참여를 넓히는 장벽을 이해하기 위한 추가 연구가 필요하다.

미국에서 태어난 미국인 외에도 STEM 노동력의 상당 부분이 외국에서 태어나 학사 이상의 학위를 가진 노동력의 23%를 차지한다. 외국에서 태어난 노동자들은 특히 컴퓨터 및 수학 과학자, 공학자, 생명 과학자로 일하는 박사 수준의 사람들에게 집중되어 있다. 중국과 인도는 미국에서 외국에서 태어난 STEM 박사 학위 소지자들의 주요 출생지이다. 임시 비자로 STEM 분야(즉, 수학, 컴퓨터 과학, 물리학, 생명과학, 사회과학, 공학)에서 미국에서 교육을 받은 많은 외국인 박사 학위 소지자들은 학위를 받은 후 최소 1년 후에 미국 내에 남을 것으로 예상한다. 이러한 시민권자가 아닌 많은 사람들이 영주권자나 미국 시민이 된다. 따라서 이민은 미국 STEM 인력의 역량을 구축하는 데 핵심적인 요소이다.

미국의 STEM 노동력은 크고 직업, 교육 수준, 국적이 다양하다. STEM 근로자는 일반적으로 비 STEM 근로자에 비해 노동 시장 결과가 우수하지만, 이러한 혜택은 지역, 성별, 인종 또는 민족에 걸쳐 불균등하게 분포되어 있다. 역사적으로 대표성이 낮은 그룹들의 참여가 증가했지만, 이들 그룹은 계속해서 대표성이 떨어져 미국 S&E 기업의 혁신 역량을 저해할 수 있다. STEM 참여를 확대하고 STEM 혜택의 공평한 분배를 보장하는 것은 국가의 생활 수준을 향상시키고 경제 성장을 제공하며 글로벌 경쟁력을 유지하는 데 중요한 STEM 인력의 양성을 촉진한다.