1

EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT

An overview of employment and wages in 

science, technology, engineering, and 

math (STEM) groups

By John I. Jones

STEM is an acronym often used to refer to occupations, as well as fields of study, in science, technology, 

engineering, and math. The definition of STEM can vary, depending on the group using it. To develop some 

standards, the Standard Occupation Classification Policy Committee, made up of representatives of several 

government agencies,1 developed options for defining STEM occupations, using the 2010 Standard Occupational 

Classification (SOC) system. The SOC Policy Committee developed two major domains that contain two 

April 2014 | Vol. 3 / No. 8
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subdomains each. The first major domain contains the "core" STEM occupations, and the second domain includes 

occupations that are dependent upon STEM knowledge.

Science, Engineering, Mathematics, and Information Technology Domain

1. Life and physical science, engineering, mathematics, and information technology occupations

2. Social science occupations

Science‐ and Engineering‐related Domain

3. Architecture occupations

4. Health occupations

Furthermore, each STEM occupation can be categorized into one of five types of STEM occupations:

A. Research, development, design, or practitioner occupations

B. Technologist and technician occupations

C. Postsecondary teaching occupations

D. Managerial occupations

E. Sales occupations

The domains, subdomains, and the five types of STEM occupations are all groupings based on the type of 

occupations and the duties associated with each particular type of occupation that should prove useful for 

workforce planning and development, human resource departments, and jobseekers.

This Beyond the Numbers article describes the employment and wages for these STEM groups, using 

Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Employment

Total May 2013 OES employment in all STEM occupations is 16,994,480. This is nearly 13 percent of total national 

employment (132,588,810). Across the four types of STEM subdomains, health occupations have the most 

employment (8,276,100) and architecture occupations have the least employment (156,650). Of the five types of 

STEM occupations, the largest by far is group A (Research, development, design, or practitioner occupations), with 

employment of 9,874,110. Next largest is group B (Technologist and technician occupations), with employment of 

5,212,070. The remaining three types of STEM occupations each have employment totals less than 1 million. Now, 

let’s take a look at employment estimates for each of the 20 groups.

Type of occupation

Science, engineering, mathematics, and information 

technology domain

Science- and engineeringrelated domain

Total 1. Life and physical science, 

engineering, mathematics, and 

information technology occupations

2. Social science 

occupations

3. Architecture 

occupations

4. Health 

occupations

Table 1. Employment in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) occupational groups, May 

2013

See footnotes at end of table.
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Note: Occupations shown in the column headings are derived from the Standard Occpational Classification (SOC) system. Dash indicates data not available.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment Statistics program.

Group 4-A (Health research, development, design, or practitioner occupations) has the largest employment 

(4,777,850) out of the 20 groups. There are only four groups: 1-A and 1-B (Research, development, design, or 

practitioner occupations and Technologists and technicians in Life, physical, and social science, engineering, 

mathematics, and information technology) and 4-A and 4-B (Research, development, design, or practitioner 

occupations and Technologist and technicians in Health occupations) that have employment greater than 2 million. 

After these four groups, the next largest group is 1-D (Managerial occupations in life and physical science, 

engineering, mathematics, and information technology), with employment of 534,040. The three groups with the 

lowest employment are all located in the architecture subdomain (groups 3-B, 3-C, and 3-D). All have employment 

below 30,000, with group 3-C (Postsecondary teaching architecture occupations) having the lowest employment 

(7,340). There are four groups: 2-D (Managerial occupations in social science), 2-E (Sales occupations in social 

science), 3-E (Sales occupations in architecture), and 4-E (Sales occupations in health) that have no employment, 

due to the way the groups are defined currently.

Wages

The May 2013 annual average wage for all the STEM occupations is $79,640. This is roughly 1.7 times the 

national annual average wage for all occupations ($46,440). Out of all five types of STEM occupations, the highest 

wage is found in the managerial occupations, with an annual average wage of $122,470. In contrast, the lowest 

paying types of STEM occupations are the technologist and technician occupations ($49,930). Unlike the five 

types of STEM occupations, the four domains have average annual wages that do not vary much and are close to 

the annual average wage ($79,640) for all STEM occupations. The domain with the highest wage ($83,750) is the 

life and physical science, engineering, mathematics, and information technology occupations. The lowest wage 

domain, social science occupations, has an annual average wage of $70,880. So the five types of STEM 

occupations differ by roughly $70,000, but the four domains differ by approximately $10,000. Table 2 lists the 

annual average wage for the 20 groups.

Type of occupation

Science, engineering, mathematics, and information 

technology domain

Science- and engineeringrelated domain

Total 1. Life and physical science, 

engineering, mathematics, and 

information technology occupations

2. Social science 

occupations

3. Architecture 

occupations

4. Health 

occupations

Total 8,075,270 436,460 156,650 8,276,100 16,944,480

A. Research, 

development, design, 

or practitioner 

occupations

4,777,850 234,590 100,540 4,761,130 9,874,110

B. Technologist and 

technician occupations 2,107,070 81,930 28,400 2,994,670 5,212,070

C. Postsecondary 

teaching occupations 237,750 119,940 7,340 220,120 585,150

D. Managerial 

occupations 534,040 – 20,370 300,180 854,590

E. Sales occupations 418,560 – – – 418,560

Table 1. Employment in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) occupational groups, May 

2013
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Footnotes:

(1) The annual average wages for each group, except for groups 3-B,C,D and 4-D, are calculated from a weighted annual average wage. Groups 3-B,C,D and 

4-D have the same wage estimate as the national annual average wage because the groups each contain only one occupation.

(2)To calculate the weighted annual mean wage for the occupations, 11-9041 Architectural and engineering managers and 17-3011 Architectural and civil 

drafters, in the groups 1-D and 3-D, as well as 1-B and 3-B, required splitting the employment between the groups since one is architecture and the other is 

engineering. The method used was suggested by the SOC Policy Committee which consists of using the distribution of industry employment from NAICS 5413 

Architectural and engineering services. 11-9041 had the following distribution: 11.1 percent in architecture and 88.9 percent in engineering. 17-3011 had the 

following distribution: 32 percent in architecture and 68 percent in engineering.

(3) To calculate the weighted annual mean wage for the occupation, 19-4099 Life, physical, and social science technicians, all other, for the groups 1-B and 2-

B required splitting the employment between the groups because one is life and physical science, and the other is social science. The method used was 

suggested by the SOC Policy Committee which consists of using the national employment distribution of the minor groups, 19-1000, 19-2000, and 19-3000. 

So, employment for 19-4099 was broken out as follows: 70 percent Life and physical science, 30 percent Social science.

Note: Occupations shown in the column headings are derived from the Standard Occpational Classification (SOC) system. Dash indicates data not available.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment Statistics program.

Managerial occupations have the highest wages (groups 1-, 3-, 4-D) among the 20 groups. The four lowest wages 

are found in the technologists and technicians occupations (groups 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-B). The highest annual average 

wage found in the managerial occupations ($136,540) is 3 times the lowest annual average wage found in the 

technologists and technicians occupations ($45,200). Also, the technologists and technicians are the only type of 

STEM occupations that have two groups: 2-B (Technologist and technician occupations in social science) and 4-B 

(Technologist and technician occupations in health) that are slightly below the national annual average wage for all 

occupations.

Conclusion

STEM occupations are actively promoted by many federal agencies, such as the National Science Foundation, 

and are viewed as having some of the best opportunities for job growth in the future. Currently, they make up more 

than 1 out of every 10 jobs in the United States and have wages that are approaching nearly twice the U.S. 

average.

Type of occupation

Science, engineering, mathematics, and 

information technology domain

Science- and engineeringrelated domain

Average wage 

for all 

domains

1. Life and physical science, 

engineering, mathematics, and 

information technology 

occupations

2. Social science 

occupations

3. Architecture 

occupations

4. Health 

occupations

A. Research, 

development, design, or 

practitioner occupations

$89,540 $74,900 $77,850 $93,320 $90,900

B. Technologist and 

technician occupations

(2)

,

(3) 56,830 (3) 45,280 (2) 51,250 45,200 49,930

C. Postsecondary 

teaching occupations 85,560 80,500 80,180 96,760 88,670

D. Managerial 

occupations

(2) 133,810 –(2) 136,540 101,340 122,470

E. Sales occupations 88,150 – – – 79,750

Average wage for all 

occupation types 83,750 70,880 80,770 76,290 79,640

Table 2. Annual average wages(1) in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) occupational 

groups, May 2013
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This Beyond the Numbers summary was prepared by John I. Jones, economist in the Office of Employment and 

Unemployment Statistics, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Email: jones.john@bls.gov. Telephone: (202) 691-5197.

Information in this article will be made available to sensory-impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: (202) 

691-5200. Federal Relay Service: 1-800-877-8339. This article is in the public domain and may be reproduced 

without permission.

 

RELATED 

ARTICLES

“Architecture and Engineering Occupations,” www.bls.gov/opub/btn/archive/architecture-and-engineering-occupations-pdf.pdf

“Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations: a visual essay,” www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2011/05/art1full.pdf

NOTES

1 For information about the government agencies participating in the Standard Occupation Classification Policy Committee, see 

www.bls.gov/soc/Attachment_A_STEM.pdf .

2 To see a finer level of detail, all the occupations in the different STEM groups, with their respective employment and wage estimates, 

are available on the OES webpage at https://www.bls.gov/oes/stem-groups.htm.

3Additional 2010 SOC STEM definitions and supporting documentations on definitions and supporting documentation are found at 

www.bls.gov/soc/. (See the bullets under the heading, “Options for defining STEM occupations under the 2010 SOC.”)

SUGGESTED 

CITATION

John I. Jones, “An overview of employment and wages in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) groups,” Beyond the 

Numbers: Employment and Unemployment, vol. 3, no. 8 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, April 2014), https://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/

volume-3/an-overview-of-employment.htm