IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/recgxx/v93y2017i2p185-201.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Matching of STEM Degree Holders with STEM Occupations in Large Metropolitan Labor Markets in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Richard Wright
  • Mark Ellis
  • Matthew Townley

Abstract

Workers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are vital for regional and national prosperity. Not every person with STEM qualifications, however, finds employment in a STEM job. This article analyzes the geography of this matching between STEM degree holders and certain types of STEM occupations across large metropolitan labor markets in the United States. We find that although labor-market size has no effect, living in denser STEM labor markets elevates the probabilities of matching; having an advanced degree enhances this effect. Women are also far less likely to be matched than men; being black or Latino additionally lowers the chances of matching. Combining spatial effects with individual attributes increases probabilities of matching in places with high concentrations of STEM jobs for women, racial minorities, and the foreign born, but these advantages are often the same for white, native-born men. In denser STEM labor markets the job-matching advantage spans the labor pool, conferring no differential benefit for different population subgroups.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Wright & Mark Ellis & Matthew Townley, 2017. "The Matching of STEM Degree Holders with STEM Occupations in Large Metropolitan Labor Markets in the United States," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 93(2), pages 185-201, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:recgxx:v:93:y:2017:i:2:p:185-201
    DOI: 10.1080/00130095.2016.1220803
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00130095.2016.1220803
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00130095.2016.1220803?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bruna Bruno & Marisa Faggini, 2021. "To be a STEM or not to be a STEM: Why do countries differ?," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(3), pages 1535-1551, September.
    2. Brunow, Stephan & Birkeneder, Antonia & Rodriguez-Pose, Andrés, 2017. "Creative and science oriented employees and firm innovation : a key for smarter cities?," IAB-Discussion Paper 201724, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    3. Cazarez, Dulce Carolina Mendoza, 2022. "Exploring influences on the choice of fields of study in higher education: Evidence from Mexico," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    4. Stephan Brunow & Antonia Birkeneder & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2018. "Creative and science-oriented employees and firm-level innovation," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1808, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Feb 2018.
    5. Zhenshan Yang, 2023. "Human capital space: a spatial perspective of the dynamics of people and economic relationships," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-14, December.
    6. Josh Siepel & Roberto Camerani & Monica Masucci, 2021. "Skills combinations and firm performance," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 1425-1447, April.
    7. John V. Winters, 2017. "Do Native STEM Graduates Increase Innovation? Evidence from U.S. Metropolitan Areas," Economics Working Paper Series 1714, Oklahoma State University, Department of Economics and Legal Studies in Business.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:recgxx:v:93:y:2017:i:2:p:185-201. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/recg .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.