The great STEM worker shortage - a zombie lie that never dies [View all]

[jmbar2]

I started researching this supposed shortage over 20 years ago when I was doing labor market research for a university. Ron Hira has been writing about it for longer than that.

Labor market "shortages" are not shortages, anymore than expensive oranges are orange "shortages". These insidious lies can cause people to misinvest in education and training, and to take on student debt that cannot be repaid.

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Is There Really a STEM Workforce Shortage?
By Ron Hira

In 1959, economists Kenneth J. Arrow and William M. Capron published an article responding to complaints of a shortage of scientists and engineers, noting that “in view of all the discussion of the ‘shortage’ problem, it is remarkable how little direct evidence is available.” Fifty-five years later, in 2014, demographer Michael S. Teitelbaum wrote: “The alarms about widespread shortages or shortfalls in the number of US scientists and engineers are quite inconsistent with nearly all available evidence.

Frequently, the main stakeholder groups steering these conversations—businesses, universities, and government research agencies—benefit from the push to train and import more STEM workers. Others, including students and workers, rarely have their interests formally represented in these discussions. So even though numerous reports, analyses, books, and news articles have carefully examined demand and supply in the STEM workforce and labor markets over the decades and found no widespread or lasting shortages, perceptions of such shortages endure.”

https://issues.org/stem-workforce-shortage-data-hira/