A study released by U.S. News and Raytheon gives a detailed analysis of the continuous growth in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) field but not for everyone: overall, women and minorities are not making progress in this field at the same rate as white males. However, other studies show that the talent is readily available, and the companies have not made enough of an effort to attract and retain it.
The number of STEM related bachelor’s degrees earned overall has consistently gone up since about 2009, but very large racial and gender gaps remain. Females have seen a steady increase over the years but not large enough to catch up to their male counterparts. Minority groups overall have either remained consistent or seen an uptick, but still come nowhere close to whites.
However, statistics show that this is not even the root of the problem because the percentage of women and minorities who get hired into the STEM field remains significantly lower than the already low number obtaining STEM degrees. In 2014, Blacks made up six percent of all tech students but this number was not reflected among some of the world’s big tech companies. Only four percent of Intel’s employees are Black, with Microsoft and Cisco seeing only three percent, and Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn and Twitter seeing just two percent. Hispanics, making up 11 percent of tech students in 2014, did not fare much better. Intel saw the highest number of Hispanic employees, but still remained under at eight percent, with Twitter coming in at a mere two percent.
