Re:What STEM shortage? Electrical engineering lost 35,000 jo...
by patio11 on Friday January 17, 2014 @11:49AM
(#7076736)
I have revised how I phrased this post:
I am confused as to the methodology by which IEEE extracted that conclusion from BLS data. On noticing my confusion, I attempted to verify every number in the article. I have just spent an hour with OES data from 2012 and 2011, since I believe the IEEE was looking at the 2012 data released in 2013 rather than the 2013 data which be released later this year.
I remain confused as to how to generate any number that the IEEE has quoted in this article.
I have considered the possibility that the IEEE has accessed to unpublished data from the BLS for 2013. However, if I interpret the numbers they are quoting as from 2013 with the delta from the year previous, I am unable to reproduce the BLS' numbers from 2012.
I am confused by the magnitude of the discrepancy. For example, the IEEE claims that "The number of employed software developers, the largest IT occupation segment, increased by only 1.75%, to 1.1 million, a gain of 19,000." I have difficulty reconciling this with the BLS numbers from 2012, which report that employment in that segment is 1,397,780. The one-year gain in that segment is, according to the BLS, over 100,000 jobs, again assuming that we're looking at 2011 to 2012.
I have taken the liberty of repeating the analysis while intentionally making several easy processing mistakes in interpreting the 2012 data, for example looking at the numbers for only the private sector. I have not yet found any combination of data sources or mistakes which produces the numbers the IEEE is claiming.
I am confused as to the methodology by which IEEE extracted that conclusion from BLS data. On noticing my confusion, I attempted to verify every number in the article. I have just spent an hour with OES data from 2012 and 2011, since I believe the IEEE was looking at the 2012 data released in 2013 rather than the 2013 data which be released later this year.
I remain confused as to how to generate any number that the IEEE has quoted in this article.
I have considered the possibility that the IEEE has accessed to unpublished data from the BLS for 2013. However, if I interpret the numbers they are quoting as from 2013 with the delta from the year previous, I am unable to reproduce the BLS' numbers from 2012.
I am confused by the magnitude of the discrepancy. For example, the IEEE claims that "The number of employed software developers, the largest IT occupation segment, increased by only 1.75%, to 1.1 million, a gain of 19,000." I have difficulty reconciling this with the BLS numbers from 2012, which report that employment in that segment is 1,397,780. The one-year gain in that segment is, according to the BLS, over 100,000 jobs, again assuming that we're looking at 2011 to 2012.
I have taken the liberty of repeating the analysis while intentionally making several easy processing mistakes in interpreting the 2012 data, for example looking at the numbers for only the private sector. I have not yet found any combination of data sources or mistakes which produces the numbers the IEEE is claiming.