Stem Workforce Dwindles With Few Young People in Industry

As a result, in 2021 workers between the ages of 16 and 24 made up 12.7% of total employment across all occupations but only 6.8% of all STEM workers (just under 800,000) in the United States.

While less common, STEM opportunities for young workers without a college degree exist — mostly technician occupations — and are needed to meet future demand.

STEM occupations range from computer specialists to social scientists and STEM-related occupations include health care practitioners and architects.

As STEM employment increases, what are some potential STEM pathways for workers under 25?

Younger workers (defined here as those between the ages of 16 to 24) are employed in a wide range of STEM occupations, with the largest concentration in technician-related ones.

Workers between the ages of 16 to 24 accounted for 21.8% of all life, physical, and social science technicians in the United States in 2021. Smaller percentages of younger workers held STEM jobs as life scientists (4.0%) or social scientists (2.1%).

Among the life, physical, and social science technician occupations, “other” was the detailed category with the largest proportion (27.8%) of young STEM workers. This group of workers includes polygraph examiners, soil testers, meteorological aides, and others.

Within the various technician-related occupations, a similar share (around 15%) of workers between the ages of 16 and 24 were employed as agricultural and food science technicians, biological technicians, or chemical technicians. Another 10% were social science research assistants and 8% were environmental science and geoscience technicians.

The STEM workforce tends to have a younger age profile than the overall workforce.

In 2021, workers between the ages of 25 to 44 made up more than half (52.6%) of STEM workers — the largest share of STEM workers. Around 40% of older workers, those ages 45 and more, worked in STEM.

STEM occupations include computer specialists, mathematicians, engineers, life scientists, physical scientists, social scientists, and science technicians.

STEM-related occupations consist primarily of architects, healthcare practitioners, and healthcare technicians.

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