Millennial Tech Workers Losing Ground In US

Nerval's Lobster writes Millennial tech workers are entering the U.S. workforce at a comparable disadvantage to other tech workers throughout the industrialized world, according to study earlier this year from Educational Testing Services (PDF). How do U.S. millennials compare to their international peers, at least according to ETS? Those in the 90th percentile (i.e., the top-scoring) actually scored lower than top-scoring millennials in 15 of the 22 studied countries; low-scoring U.S. millennials ranked last (along with Italy and England/Northern Ireland). While some experts have blamed the nation's education system for the ultimate lack of STEM jobs, other studies have suggested that the problem isn't in the classroom; a 2014 report from the U.S. Census Bureau suggested that many of the people who earned STEM degrees didn't actually go into careers requiring them. In any case, the U.S. is clearly wrestling with an issue; how can it introduce more (qualified) STEM people into the market?

Comments

Suck it Millenials

[Anonymous Coward]

Makes me glad I'm one of the last born Gen X'ers.

Re:Suck it Millenials

[Crazy Taco]

Makes me glad I'm one of the leading edge Millennials, one of the ones that grew up with Windows 95/DOS and all the associated bugginess and user-unfriendliness of the applications of that era. We actually had to learn how our computers worked and how to really get in and fix things. These later edge Millennials that got iPhones in middle school and high school have utterly no idea how any of this stuff works.

For reasons I don't understand, the media continues to refer to the trailing edge Millennials as technology whiz kids who have grown up with technology and are "technologically savvy", but to my way of thinking they really know nothing about technology at all. It takes absolutely no skill to use some Apple store approved iPhone app with a super simple, refined UI. It did take skill to try to install and run old DOS games and get all those crazy, primitive drivers to install, work, and not have conflicts with each other. Those issues led to a curiosity about computers, which led to me learning programming, which led to a computer engineer degree and ultimately a good career in IT, but had I grown up with an iPhone I wonder if it would ever have happened.

Oh, and let's not forget leading edge Millennials are phenomenal typers too, because we grew up with Instant Messaging clients, not texting with our thumbs. Not a bad skill to have in IT.

-Born in late 1983.

Re:Suck it Millenials

[gweihir]

For reasons I don't understand, the media continues to refer to the trailing edge Millennials as technology whiz kids who have grown up with technology and are "technologically savvy", but to my way of thinking they really know nothing about technology at all.

That one is pretty simple: The media have no clue about technology at all and think being able to use a simple user-interface is actually is some way comparable to "mastering" and "controlling" a device. Of course, none of that is the case. Instead, there are just even less incentives to learn how technology actually works. All surface, no deeper understanding at all.

Re:Suck it Millenials

[l0n3s0m3phr34k]

When I was their age, we had to use Wyse terminals, outside, IN THE SNOW. NOW GET OFF MY LAWN!

Re:Suck it Millenials

[Viol8]

Exactly that. Its as if knowing how to use a steering wheel and pedals suddenly turns you into a vehicle engineering expert.

College is too Expensive

[mcolgin]

College is too Expensive, doesn't guarantee a job in the US. In WA State, they used to be heavily subsidized. Now they aren't. Not enough STEM, Businesses lobby the Govt for more H1B visas and out-source more. Vicious circle since the mid 90s.

Yep

[Anonymous Coward]

Pay us well (and give us raises as we gain experience so we don't have to job-hop to be paid market rates).

Treat us well (no more 70 hour weeks, no more rollout-on-weekends-with-no-comp-time, no more demand to fix bugs on our own time, no more keeping us in meetings all week then wondering why work didn't get done on time, etc).

Give us job security (no more you-are-useless-if-you-are-over-40).

Do that, or even some of that, and the workforce will swell with tech workers.

Re:Yep

[Jane Q. Public]

Give us job security (no more you-are-useless-if-you-are-over-40).

Especially when you consider that study after study has shown that older programmers consistently outperform younger programmers. This has been shown to be true up to about age 70.

And as an employer...

[tlambert]

It's not that hard to figure out.

4 jobs at 40 hours equals 5 jobs at 32 hours.

And as an employer, my per-employee loading costs go up by 20%.

Tell you what: Go to a single payer health care system, roll unemployment, disability, and retirement into a Basic Guaranteed Income program, and define away poverty because with a BGI, it doesn't exist, and I'll happily split up jobs into as many pieces as you want, down to 20 hours/week/worker, because it won't cost me extra to hire more people, as long as the same number of hours get worked.

Until then, thank your government unfunded mandates and offshoring for current unemployment levels (26%+, according to World Bank numbers, since DOL unemployment statistics only count people receiving unemployment insurance, and vastly underestimate the number of unemployed).

If you want to fix the offshoring problem, I can help with that, too, but you really need to abandon the TPP, modify NAFTA to eliminate the trans-shipment loophole, and eliminate MFN status for China (for starters; there's other things that will need to happen on top of that, but it's the minimum foundational bedrock necessary to move forward).