STEM Workforce Proportionately Largest in Maryland, Smallest in Mississippi

The Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology released a publication entitled STEM in the States. It provides information on important indicators of the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and workforces in each state in comparative perspective. These data are presented alongside many common indicators of economic well-being: median household incomes, state gross domestic product, poverty rate, home ownership rates and the like. The publication echoes findings of earlier CPST-produced compendia: that STEM does a poor job in tapping the rich talent pool in the United States. The volume STEM in the States provides general information backed up with online data archives available to purchasers to drill down into the disciplines of STEM. These more detailed analyses show us the real gaps in our economy and the areas in which we may have an oversupply of STEM workers. For example, while about 65,000-70,000 new engineers are produced each year at the bachelor’s degree level by U.S. colleges and universities, some industry experts have suggested that we need about 125,000 new engineers each year to fuel innovation in our nation.

STEM in the States’ executive summary, includes an in-depth analysis of the cross-state comparisons of STEM education and workforce in the U.S. In the chart, the S&E workforce is shown as a percentage of each state’s population. Here we see, for example, that the highly populated states in which there are large numbers of scientists and engineers are clustered around the middle of the distribution, not far from the U.S. overall of 2.6% of people. California has a ratio a little higher at 2.9%, while Texas at 2.4% and New York at 2.2% are a little lower than the national norm. States that are at the high end, where there are more scientists and engineers in relation to the population, are Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Massachusetts, all of which show the S&E workforce as more than 4% of each state’s population. New Hampshire ranks fifth at 3.9% – New Hampshire was also the state with the lowest poverty rate and the highest median household incomes. Of course, the District of Columbia had a relatively high poverty rate at 16.5% and a relatively low home ownership rate at 44.1% despite having a very large S&E workforce.
For further information regarding STEM in the States or to request a copy, please visit CPST’s website, www.cpst.org.

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