Sure not everyone can or should become a programmer/software engineer. But you would expect a progressive forward thinking society like the United States, who has pioneered most of the technological advances in the 20th century to have a steady flow of STEM graduates, wouldn't you?

I believe there was 60 minutes episode for this. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-25/companies-say-3-mil...

This story includes all open jobs which require "high-tech skills", not necessarily being software engineers/programmers, and they don't have a breakdown by job function, unfortunately. Maybe I was misled by the over use of IT and high-tech that led me to believe they meant IT jobs only.

This snippet is from Obama's Google+ Hangout: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Perhaps the most notable exchange during the Hangout was when participant Jennifer Wedel of Texas, whose husband has had trouble finding permanent employment for the past three years, interrupted the president.

Obama had said he had a list of folks looking to hire engineers, her husband's specialty. "There's a huge demand for engineers around the country right now," he added, when Wedel jumped in.

"Um, I understand that, but how — given the list that you're getting, I mean we're not getting that — You said in the State of the Union address that business leaders should ask themselves what can they do to bring jobs to America," she said.

The president had a very personal response which Wedel seemed satisfied with.

"If you send me your husband's resume, I'd be interested to find out what's happening," Obama said. "But the word we're getting is somebody in that high tech field should be able to find something right away."

"I'll have to take you up on that," she replied. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Although he was getting calls from companies he couldn't move away from North Texas: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/04/09/144558/texas-engineer-...

And in typical brain-dead, southern conservative fashion his wife blames H1B's for his inability to get a job (I lived in Texas for over seven years, I know these things first hand).