Archive for January 11th, 2012

January 11, 2012

More jobs for STEM graduates who make technology than for those who use it

by Grace

People who make technology are better off than people who use technology.

That’s one conclusion of a Georgetown University report on College Majors, Unemployment and Earnings.

For recent graduates in Math and Computing unemployment is low for specialists who can write software and invent new applications (6%), but still comparatively high (11.2 percent) for those who use software to manipulate, mine and disseminate information.

The lower unemployment figure is for computer science and mathematics majors, and the higher one is for information systems majors.  All STEM majors are not created equal.

This chart is from Wikimedia.

UPDATE:  After reading Bonnie’s comment, I changed the post title from For job security it’s better to make technology than to use it to More jobs for STEM graduates who make technology than for those who use it.  “Job security” was a poor choice of words, given the cyclical nature of this industry.  In fact, the report predicted a recovery for information systems workers as the economy recovers.  The truth is that economic fluctuations affect all our jobs, although some are more cyclical than others.