Book: The Math Myth

For those of you who followed the college regime in high school, did you or do you ever use algebra in your day to day job? Trig? Or how about calculus? I’m guessing probably not. I’m in the midst of reading The Math Myth by Andrew Hacker and the book has some pretty interesting and damning things to say about our pursuit of mathematics in education.

For starters, engineers might use mathematics in about 8% of their work. I know, shocking. Most computer science majors don’t really use mathematics; they deal with programming languages. So why all of the emphasis on math? I don’t really know and the author hasn’t said why yet (remember, I haven’t finished the book yet).

But the part I really want to talk about in this post is wages and the proclaimed shortage of STEM labor. There’s been a lot of bellyaching that the U.S. is not producing enough STEM majors to fill all of the jobs out there. The author delved into this issue by doing some research in the latest Occupational Outlook Handbook which indicates that the number of overall jobs will increase by 15,627,900 or an increase of 10.8% (The Math Myth, Andrew Hacker, p.28, 2016, hardcover). Meanwhile engineering will increase by 130,400 or only 9%, less than the overall increase.

With all of that consternation of the STEM labor shortage, the increase in jobs should be greater than 9%.

What gives?

Well, as the author points out, there is what I call automation and he calls deskilling. The automation gets rid of the need for all of those engineers and they have to move down the skill ladder. The remaining new engineers who do get jobs are being hired to replace those retiring, at a lower rate. But here’s the thing:

“What isn’t said aloud is that the pay won’t rise much higher.” The Math Myth, Andrew Hacker, p.33, 2016, hardcover.

The author says the median salaries for engineers are lower compared to nurses and pharmacists. I presume that in order to increase their earnings, engineers move into sales or management.

Finally, companies are hiring the remaining needed engineers through the use of HB visas, again keeping the wages low.

I hadn't realize engineers were facing this kind of problem.

Here’s a couple of snippets of more “stories” in the author’s words:

"…the CEO complained that, of 1,051 recent applicants for openings at the firm, only ten of them could perform the technical operations he needed. The firm had the jobs, he said, but couldn’t find qualified candidates. (Further down the New York Times article) it was reported that the starting pay on offer was $10 an hour. What wasn’t revealed was whether there were skilled people in the area who didn’t apply because they wouldn’t work for a wage very close to what they might get at McDonald’s." The Math Myth, Andrew Hacker, p. 34 – 35, 2016, hardcover.

Or haven't you read similar stories like this?

"But when todays employers talk of having unfilled positions, they are really saying they want it both ways. On the one hand, they want applicants who have the specified training and experience. On the other, they want those workers to accept ascetic pay.

The Boston Consulting Group tells its clients that such talk is delusory: “Trying to hire high-skilled workers at rock-bottom rates is not a skills gap.” The Math Myth, Andrew Hacker, p. 35, 2016, hardcover.

Now here’s a shocker: I thought those in the computer science field would be pulling in the high pay, but there was a “29 percent drop in 9 years (drop in degrees awarded between 2004 and 2013), during a time when students were measuring college majors by their job prospects. Apparently, word got around that computer science graduates weren’t being besieged with offers. Perhaps students also saw a survey conducted by the American Association of Coders. It found that half of its members were making under $41,000, with only eight percent earning as much as $70,000.” The Math Myth, Andrew Hacker, p 35 – 36, 2016, hardcover.

And we wonder why voters are lashing out and voting in anybody who will upend things? And with the coming onslaught of automation, people will just get angrier.