Study highlights Memphis-area STEM jobs without four-year degree

Study redefines STEM jobs to include blue-collar work

A new think-tank report suggests Garrett Manos isn't getting the attention he deserves as a valuable worker in the science, technology, engineering and math fields in the Memphis-area economy.

Manos, 18, graduated from Strayhorn High School in Tate County, Miss., three weeks ago. He promptly landed a job as a technician working on construction equipment in Memphis at Stribling Equipment LLC, a Richland, Miss.-based John Deere dealership.

With a scholarship he won using automotive skills honed in high school vocational courses, Manos will attend Northwest Mississippi Community College to earn a two-year technical degree. He'll also receive in-house training from Stribling Equipment and John Deere. And with new models and advancements in the computer-controlled bulldozers, backhoes and other heavy equipment he'll work on, his training will never end, said Brandon McMaster, Stribling Equipment product support manager.

"Years past, we've always tried to hire the seasoned veteran, someone with years of experience because 20 years ago there weren't technical schools, there weren't vocational schools ... that had programs," McMaster said.

Yet, because his education and training won't earn Manos a college bachelor's degree or a higher one, he hasn't been counted as a STEM worker, those with science, technology, engineering and math knowledge proven to earn higher pay and drive innovation in the American economy.

A Brookings Institution report, "The Hidden STEM Economy" by Jonathan Rothwell, expands the definition of STEM workers to include those requiring specialized knowledge in the fields, but who only need a community college associates' degree or less to do their jobs.

By that new definition, the study found that in 2011, the Memphis metropolitan area included 93,590 STEM jobs. Of those, nearly 59 percent required an associates' degree or less, while about 41 percent required at least a bachelor's degree.

Treating and diagnosing in the health care field accounted for the largest number of STEM jobs in the Memphis area, with 19,200. But even there, by Brookings' expanded definition, only about 31 percent of those jobs required a bachelor's degree or better.

The study also points to

blue-collar STEM occupations, from technicians and mechanics to electricians, installers, repairers and operators, that require a high degree of science, technical, engineering or math knowledge, but not a four-year college degree.

Regardless of the education required, STEM jobs pay more.

Memphis-area STEM jobs that required a bachelor's degree or more paid an average of $80,335, nearly 30 percent more than the $62,488 average for non-STEM work, according to the study.

For those Memphis-area STEM jobs requiring an associate degree or less, the average wages were $50,474, more than 63 percent higher than the $30,862 average for non-STEM jobs.

For public policymakers, the study suggests that the focus on increasing STEM jobs should broaden to those that don't require bachelor's or graduate degrees.

Of an estimated $4.3 billion in federal spending on STEM education, 45 percent goes toward bachelor's degree or higher levels, while 22 percent supports education at the community college level or below, according to the study.

At Southwest Tennessee Community College, Lisa Jones, interim chairwoman of the technologies department, said more people should be enrolling in the college's associate of applied science programs including architectural engineering technology, biotechnology technician, automotive service technician, radiologic technology and computer engineering technology.

"We do not have as many students as we would like," Jones said. "I don't think students appreciate what kind of jobs they can get."

Railroads, utility companies manufacturers are among employers who hire the college's graduates. She gave an example of one computer technician who graduated in May who received a $40,000 job offer, a wage that should grow to about $60,000 after additional training supplied by his employer.

"So industry values our two-year degree," Jones said.

However, the Brookings study suggests that the Memphis-area is doing a better job of producing STEM jobs that require an associate degree or less than it is grooming more highly educated STEM professionals.

By the total number of STEM jobs in the area, 93,590, Memphis ranked 51st among the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas.