In 2011, Philly created 64,000 STEM jobs but just 6,000 degrees: Campus Philly

It’s a common refrain these days: overeducated and underemployed.

At last week’s Campus Philly Annual Report event, Campus Philly president Deborah Diamond offered some stats that could help explain the status quo. It’s an effort of Diamond to look at regional comparisons between college degrees conferred and jobs available to better match opportunity.

One of the simplest trends: we’re creating many IT jobs but giving out less IT degrees.

In 2011, the broad Philly region created more than 64,000 science, IT and finance jobs, which accounts for 16 percent of all jobs created that year. But regional colleges and universities only gave out some 6,000 computer science, engineering and math degrees, making up 7 percent of all degrees granted in 2011.

On the other hand, there are more students with business and management degrees than there are jobs in that field. As a region, Philly created more than 7,000 management jobs last year — only two percent of all jobs created, while it gave out more than 16,000 business, management and marketing related degrees (18 percent of all degrees granted).

Campus Philly’s research found better matching between jobs and degrees in other fields (including a decline in humanities degree).

Check out all the slides from the presentation here.

One solution to this imbalance is surely an increased focus on early local STEM education. Check out our series on the State of STEM in Philly and more of our STEM coverage here.