Postsecondary Education and STEM Employment in the United States: An Analysis of National Trends with a Focus on the Natural Gas and Oil Industry

Abstract

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the client.The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.Support RAND Make a tax-deductible charitable contribution at www.rand.org/giving/contribute www.rand.org For more information on this publication, visit www.rand.org/t/RR2115Published by the RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif. © Copyright 2017 American Petroleum InstituteR® is a registered trademark.iii Preface The American Petroleum Institute, which funded this report, is the only national trade association that represents all segments of the United States' innovation-driven oil and natural gas industry. The institute's more than 625 members-including large integrated companies, exploration and production, refining, marketing, pipeline, marine shipping and support businesses, and service and supply firms-provide most of the energy in the United States. The oil and natural gas industry supports 10.3 million U.S. jobs and 7.6 percent of the U.S. economy and, since 2000, has invested more than $3 trillion in U.S. capital projects to advance all forms of energy. Many of the individuals employed in the oil and natural gas industry work in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) sector, and the industry has great interest in understanding the relationship between STEM education and employment, including STEM employment. In addition to the millions of jobs already supported by the industry, IHS projects that between 2015 and 2035, nearly 1.9 million direct job opportunities will be available in the oil, natural gas, and petrochemical industries. This includes close to 707,000 job opportunities projected to be filled by blacks and Hispanics and more than 290,000 jobs projected to be filled by women.In considering the future workforce needs of the oil and natural gas industry and how to attract and retain the best available talent, education and workforce training-STEM education in particular-are critical pieces to the projected industry growth that keeps the United States at a competitive advantage and that provides the energy all Americans depend on. This report analyzes the relationship between postsecondary education and STEM employment in the United States. In addition to being of interest to those in the oil and natural gas industry, this report should be of interest to policymakers, educators, researchers, and workforce professionals concerned with the relationship between STEM education and STEM employment, including the differences for women and for racial and ethnic minorities.This research was spons...

Supporting Middle-Skills STEM Workforce Development: Analysis of Workplace Skills in Demand and Education Institutions' Curricular Offerings in the Oil and Gas Sector

“…The lack of a properly skilled workforce is hindering the ability of U.S. businesses to compete globally (Accenture, Burning Glass, and Harvard Business School, 2014); it also hampers U.S. workers from earning more and 1 There is no standard definition of a STEM job. A methodology developed by the Brookings Institution, with the support of the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration, defines STEM jobs based on Occupational Information Network Data Collect Program (O*NET) codes for 736 occupations; the degree of knowledge in STEM was qualitatively assessed by workers in those occupations (for more details, see Rothwell, 2013;and Baird, Bozick, and Harris, 2017). Another methodology utilizes the occupational classification scheme development by the U.S. Census, which groups occupations into 468 categories, of which 74 are defined as STEM occupations (IPUMS, undated).…”

Compensation and Benefits for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Workers: A Comparison of the Federal Government and the Private Sector

“…Rather, most have focused on the extent to which STEM workers receive a wage premium-higher pay than similar workers in non-STEM positions-or are less likely to be unemployed than are non-STEM workers. 1 In the aggregate, the headline findings are consistent: workers in STEM occupations earn more and face lower unemployment rates than their counterparts in non-STEM occupations (Baird, Bozick, and Harris, 2017;Carnevale, Smith, and Melton, 2011;NSB, 2018b;Noonan, 2017). However, the experiences of workers across STEM occupations vary significantly.…”

“…There is widespread support for the view that a capable STEM workforce is important for innovation and economic growth, even among those who disagree on other questions related to this workforce (Carnevale, Smith, and Melton, 2011;Kelly et al, 2004;Teitelbaum, 2014). There is also broad agreement that STEM knowledge and skills are becoming increasingly important across the economy, and that current and future jobs are more likely to draw on these abilities than the jobs of the past (Baird, Bozick, and Harris, 2017;Carnevale, Smith, and Melton, 2011). STEM occupations have grown faster than non-STEM occupations in recent years and are projected to continue to do so (CRS, 2017;Noonan, 2017).…”

“…By educational attainment, the sharpest increase over time in the regression-adjusted STEM premium is, again, among those with less than a bachelor's degree, rising from about 25 percent in 1994 to 38 percent in 2015. Baird, Bozick, and Harris (2017) calculate a somewhat higher regression-adjusted STEM hourly wage premium of 35 percent in 2015 but do not consider whether it has risen or fallen over time.…”

“…Blacks and Hispanics are not only underrepresented in STEM occupations but also earn less on average than their white, non-Hispanic counterparts within those STEM occupations (Baird, Bozick, and Harris, 2017;Carnevale, Smith, and Melton, 2011;NSB, 2018b). Again, this finding is consistent with trends in the broader economy.…”