Nowadays, more and more people want a career in a STEM related field, working through a long and tedious journey to the dream job many of us here at Behrend want. But after the difficult journey, what if one finds him/herself without the dream job that was promised? After looking at the current job market, there may be a good possibility of this nightmare shaping up to become real life. Other, however, say it depends on who you ask in the industry.

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A recent article written by Jeffrey Quinn, Vice President of Monster.com’s Global Insights, speaks about how the employees see the engineering job market as saturated. Monster.com, a popular job search engine, held a survey in 2013 in order to see employee opinions on the job market. Here are some interesting statistics and insights from the survey.

Over one-half of the monster employees (57%) state that the job market is saturated with qualified talent. Only 37% agreed that employers are willing to provide the time and training to support the incomers in the job market. Only 27% agreed that employers are willing to provide higher compensation than 12 months ago. Only 11% are extremely confident they could find a new job in the next year.

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So according to this statistic, many employees feel that they couldn’t get a job in the next year and even moreso, feel that the job market is saturated. However, in another survey the employers revealed an entirely new ballgame. About 73% employers mentioned that they were ready to hire within the year. If this is so, then why are employees complaining about not getting jobs?

The problem lies in the quality of the employees, says Quinn. Companies are often dissatisfied with the quality of employees that they find, and are always looking for exceptional candidates. Due to this there is a huge deficit in the number of college engineering degrees handed out and the number of employees hired each year by companies. “National data from various sources shows that engineering enrollments saw yearly gains between 3 and 6 percent.

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In 2010, the number of STEM graduates stood at around 300,000 per year. Since then there has been a steady rise in the number of STEM degrees awarded as U.S. students are finding their way into science and engineering. The National Science Foundation now shows more than 850,000 STEM degrees awarded across all levels per year.”, reports Gary May, Dean of Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering.

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On the flip side, one can also sympathize with the students majoring in STEM - most feel that the salary isn’t competitive enough, especially since an average STEM student has to study for approximately 5 to 6 years extra, in addition to the K - 12 schooling cycle. Statistics from the same survey also show that 44 percent of employees are not satisfied with the salary package that is being offered to them currently.

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The majority of students at Behrend, aim to major in engineering and nursing.I certainly hope that this gap in the job market fills up, for all my dear friends in STEM related fields.