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STEM in US: Americans vs Foreigners
Hello,
For this post, I dive deeper into understanding the share of foreign born workers in STEM jobs in the US.
A few weeks ago, I made a post about how foreign student population is growing in the US.
I wanted to do a follow-up to see if there were similar trends in the workforce as well.
Luckily, I found a study done by American Immigration Council, which documented the share of foreign born population in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) jobs in the US.
There is no strict definition of which occupations constitutes STEM. And the definitions also vary across different studies.
In the data presented above, STEM occupations are those defined by 2018 US census.
The main occupations considered are IT / Software jobs like Software developers, various kinds of engineering jobs (e.g. Civil, Electrical) and scientists.
Notably, Healthcare/Medicine jobs (e.g. doctors) aren’t considered STEM occupations in this definition.
As expected, not only are STEM jobs growing in US, but the share of foreign born workers within STEM has also increased over the last ~20 years.
Workers come from many different countries across the globe, with India and China topping the list.
Immigrant workers tend to be more educated than American STEM workers (49% held advanced degrees compared to only 22% among American STEM workers)
US continues to be an attractive destination for talented and skilled people globally.
📢 Shoutouts
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That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading! 👋