Remarks
Maybe STEM Isn’t the Future After All. Soft Skills Are Coming on Strong
Jobs in science, technology, engineering, and math grew strongly from 1980 to 2000, but not since.
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Turns out that soft skills aren’t so soft after all. New research finds that from 2000 to 2012, jobs that require “non-cognitive” skills, such as the ability to communicate and work in teams, grew much faster than jobs mainly requiring skills measurable by IQ or achievement tests.
Our picture of the job market is still shaped by the period from 1980 to 2000, when there was strong growth of employment in STEM occupations—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. But things went into reverse over the next dozen years, says David Deming, a Harvard University economist who summarized several recent studies by him and others in an article in the December issue of the National Bureau of Economic Research’s NBER Reporter.