The STEM Crisis is a Myth (opens in new tab)

"Even in the computer and IT industry, the sector that employs the most STEM workers and is expected to grow the most over the next 5 to 10 years, not everyone who wants a job can find one. A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a liberal-leaning think tank in Washington, D.C., found that more than a third of recent computer science graduates aren’t working in their chosen major; of that group, almost a third say the reason is that there are no jobs available."

Yet another article that hinges on the critical mistake that seems to underpin all these anti-immigration op-eds: that all workers trained in x are interchangeable.

Any programmer knows this isn't true-- that there is a huge difference between great programmers and people who are merely trained in computer science. And that there is a genuine shortage of the former in former in Silicon Valley.

Incidentally, the Economic Policy Institute is not merely "liberal-leaning." It was created by labor unions to spread precisely this sort of message.

From the article - To parse the simultaneous claims of both a shortage and a surplus of STEM workers [...]

Or to put it another way: there is no shortage of applicants, but there sure is a shortage of good ones.

My girlfriend graduated valedictorian with a 4.0 GPA majoring in math and minoring in physics, including completing a 4 month internship at NASA, and she has been unable to find a job related to either of those fields for over a year now. Every job she's looked at/applied for requires 1-2 years of experience or more education. To live and pay off debt she taught herself HTML/CSS and some web programming and has been working freelance. She'd still love a job in math or physics. She might go back to school, but is hesitant to go into more debt without knowing she can get a job in her field of study. Everyone told her in college that she would have no problem finding a job studying math/physics.

Submitted four weeks ago under canonical URL with more than 100 comments:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6305671

And I think patio11's top-level (and apparently highest-karma) comment in the earlier thread covers the most essential issues. People in STEM occupations with strong skill sets are still in very high demand, while possibly there are a lot more people with STEM degrees but weaker skill sets who wonder why they have trouble finding jobs.

Actual research on the topic instead of punditry. A good article that will sadly sway no politician.

Prices for all goods and services are determined by supply and demand. The best ways to increase supply of labor is increase wages and on the job training. This will send a signal to potential workers to seek work in the field. The government does not need increase subsides to wealthy industries with special access to non-immigrant guest workers and free training programs. Business can solve this "problem" with good wages. Every business complains about paying for talent, and workers always want a little more. They can both set the market rate for wages which will determine supply of labor.

Duplicate (mobile version) of an earlier submission. See the earlier discussion at

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6305671

There is a minor blind spot of the often repeated but completely false claim that there are no STEM jobs or STEM activity of any sort outside SV/Manhattan, so its perfectly statistically possible for a shortage of STEM grads willing to for for $7.25/hr in SV/Manhattan to exist, therefore "the entire nation" has a STEM shortage, although solely in two relatively microscopic geographic locations. I assure you there is NO SHORTAGE of qualified STEM folks in, say, Wisconsin. Qualified STEM folks willing to work for $7.25/hr? Yes. Qualified STEM folks willing to work at Starbucks and sling coffee? Yes.

Another tangent on the topic is "real STEM" work vs business successes. You don't exactly need Knuth to implement "We're gonna serve ads to IRC implemented over SMS reimplemented over a smartphone app" "We're going to implement an online workforce automation website for middle school girls by making a database of peoples friends and then they can play virtual farm games with each other and then we'll sell ads and database dumps". What I'm getting at, is if you want to implement the great wall of china, your limit is always going to be logistics issues relating to grunts with shovels and wheelbarrows, not PHD level theoretical civil engineer problems.

So add some geographic concerns, and add some discussion of real STEM vs grunt labor type of tasks to the in a previously STEM-ish field.

Other than those two mostly untouched topics, its a good article with no obvious mistakes in what topics were covered.