The number of science, technology, engineering, and math, STEM, jobs in the United States, shrank for the past three decades,1982-2012. The draw-down accelerated from 2000-2012.
The highest occupational growth occurred among occupations with soft skills, with K-12 teaching and non-doctor health care support staff, such as nurses, technicians, and therapists. From 2000-2012, those in the physical sciences, such as chemistry, physics, and others, biological scientists, and engineers saw decreases in the availability of work in their field. The percentage of the workforce that fell into the category of “engineer” declined by over 15% (David Deming, 2017). In “The Economics of Noncognitive Skills”, data from the Brookings Institution’s Hamilton project shows that the number of service jobs increased the most over the last three decades (Timothy Taylor, 14 October 2016). These are tasks such as customer service.