Posted on Wed, Oct. 28, 2009
You know the refrain: This country doesn't train enough scientists and engineers.
A new study, for which researchers at Rutgers and Georgetown Universities analyzed 30 years of data, says that's just plain wrong.
There are plenty of graduates in those disciplines, according to the study, although there's one potentially worrisome detail: The best and the brightest tend to seek jobs in other fields. The report offers no data on what those other fields are, but cites anecdotal evidence that many top science graduates have been hired on Wall Street.
The conventional wisdom that there aren't enough people in technical fields is based on inadequate evidence, said study coauthor Hal Salzman, a public-policy professor at Rutgers.
"Overall, we don't see huge changes in the supply," said Salzman, who conducted the analysis with Georgetown scholar B. Lindsay Lowell. "This is quite surprising to us."
In the last decade, U.S. colleges graduated three times more scientists and engineers than the number of jobs available, the researchers said. The data went through 2005 and did not reflect the recession.
Officials at the Business Roundtable, an industry group that has advocated for better science education, were skeptical of the findings.
One problem is the report did not break down the broader category of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, said Susan Traiman, the roundtable's director of public policy. It classified students and workers as either being part of that broad category, commonly referred to as "STEM," or not.
While there are enough people entering the life sciences, the industry group's members say they have sometimes had trouble finding good job candidates in engineering and the physical sciences, Traiman said. The companies are able to meet their need by hiring foreigners but worry what will happen if visas become even harder to get, she said.
Salzman said he had heard those industry concerns and said they may be off-base. Companies have reduced training programs in recent years even as they seek people to fit more specific job qualifications.
"It is a question about 'Are the expectations so realistic?' " he said.
Contact staff writer Tom Avril
at 215-854-2430 or tavril@phillynews.com.
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