STEM and the American Workforce

An Inclusive Analysis of the Jobs, GDP, and Output Powered by Science and Engineering

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) engaged FTI Consulting to assess the contribution of STEM jobs to the U.S. economy and the economies of ten states – Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, New Mexico, North Dakota, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.

FTI Consulting completed a detailed mapping of approximately 800 occupational codes to over 500 economic sectors and further disaggregated the results by educational level and geography (ten states and nationally). Next, we defined and identified which U.S. jobs are STEM occupations. As a final step, we determined what direct percentage of total jobs employ STEM occupations and then calculated the broader economic impacts of those STEM workers on the larger U.S. economy.

The main findings from our analysis include:

64 million, or almost one-third, of U.S. workers are direct STEM workers
Direct STEM jobs account for $7.7 trillion or 39 percent of U.S. GDP
STEM jobs more broadly support in total:
- 130 million jobs (67 percent of total jobs)
- 13.5 trillion in US GDP (69 percent of total GDP)
- $1.2 trillion in state/local tax revenues and $2.3 trillion in federal tax revenues
59 percent of America’s STEM workers do not hold a bachelor's degree or higher, instead obtaining STEM specialization ranging from apprenticeships, associate’s degrees, on-the job-training, and technical certifications.

Republished with the author's permission. Copyright 2020 Aerospace Industries Association, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Chemical Society, American Geophysical Union, American Physical Society, Consortium of Social Science Associations, Council on Competitiveness, Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers – USA and Semiconductor Industry Association. All rights reserved.