PREDICTORS OF LOW RATES OF HISPANIC WORKERS’ PARTICIPATION IN STEM OCCUPATIONS IN THE US

Mario A. Camargo Espana

doi:https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-4ak1-xr84

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PREDICTORS OF LOW RATES OF HISPANIC WORKERS’ PARTICIPATION IN STEM OCCUPATIONS IN THE US

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The number of Hispanics in engineering departments at companies and universities differs from the proportion of Hispanics in the US population. Hispanics represented only 8% of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) workforce in 2020, despite being 17% of the overall workforce. The ethnic disparity in STEM occupations contributes to economic inequalities in the US, since STEM occupations offer salaries that are more than double the national average wage for non-STEM occupations. In fact, the national average wage for STEM occupations in 2019 was $86,980, while the national average wage for non-STEM occupations was $38,160. A logistic regression model was used to better understand the effect of demographic variables on STEM workers’ ethnic representation. First, data was gathered from household surveys (2009-2019) from IPUMS USA, a database supported by the University of Minnesota. Then the logistic model was applied and validated, and the resulting coefficients of ten different variables were used to compare their importance for Hispanic and non-Hispanic workers in STEM occupations. The results showed that (1) years of education and gender are the most relevant factors for the model, (2) having the US as their place of birth and being a US citizen increases the chances of working in STEM for Hispanic but decreases the chances of working in STEM for non-Hispanics, (3) the STEM participation gap between Hispanic males and females is considerably lower than the gap between non-Hispanic males and females, and (4) Hispanic participation rates did not increase significantly during the studied period. In 2009, a change in the variable Hispan from 0 (non-Hispanic) to 1 (Hispanic), had a decrease of around 24% in odds of working on STEM. That number decreased to 23% in 2019. Government agencies, NGOs and private organizations can leverage these findings to design programs oriented to attract Hispanic talent into STEM fields. Such initiatives should consider the diversity of the Hispanic population in the US to impact the most vulnerable Hispanic groups.

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