Daily Clips: June 5th, 2015

Study: Washington state ranks first in STEM jobs, 42nd in high school graduation rates
GeekWire – John Cook

Almost one in ten jobs in Washington state are STEM related, compared to 7.6 percent in California and 5.1 percent in New York. According to a report released today by the Technology Alliance,

A strong STEM talent pool is particularly important to attract, grow, and retain innovation-based companies.

Indeed, there is little doubt that Seattle’s uniquely high levels of STEM employment has a lot to do with King County’s incredible 3.3 percent unemployment rate.

Unfortunately, this same report outlines how our public education system remains our main weakness in STEM fields:

The report finds that Washington state ranks 42nd in the U.S. in the number of high-school kids who graduate on time.

Meanwhile, at the college level, bachelor degree production has continued to worsen, with the state now ranking 39th in total bachelor’s and 34th in natural sciences and engineering bachelor’s production. That compares to 37th and 32nd, respectively, in 2011, and 32nd and 31st in 1998.

A good jobs report, but not a full recovery: For the 14th time in 15 months the US has topped 200,000 jobs, with 280,000 jobs being added in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. What’s more, average earnings rose 8 cents an hour in May and are up 2.3 percent over the past year, significantly faster than the rate of inflation. The economy is not completely ‘fixed’, however. As FiveThirtyEight reports,

In terms of total jobs, the U.S. finally got back to pre-recession employment levels in the middle of last year. But in terms of full-time employment, we’re still waiting. When the recession began in December 2007, there were 121.6 million Americans working full-time (which the government defines as at least 35 hours a week). As of May, there were 121.4 million. Some 6.7 million Americans are stuck working part-time because they can’t find full-time work, a number that’s been falling but remains far above pre-recession levels.

Gun safety movement raises $600,000 at luncheon: At the event yesterday, Nick Hanauer said legislators with “tiny brains” who killed the Extreme Risk bill “will be hearing from us again and again and again.” And it won’t just be Republicans who hear from the gun-safety movement. As Joel Connelly reports, while

Republican legislators in Olympia are almost all aligned, at various levels of intensity, with the Gun Lobby….the focus of anger at Thursday’s lunch was on killing of the Extreme Risk legislation, which was done by Democrats.

Scott Walker’s new plan to cut $250 million from universities, spend $250 million on a basketball stadium: Yep, you read that correctly. Governor Walker backed up this dubious investment by saying

For every dollar the state invests [in the stadium], it’s three dollars in return.

This sounds good. But then you see studies which show that a college education shows a seven-fold return on investment and you start to question the dude’s intentions. And this seven-fold ROI doesn’t even take into account the many societal benefits of having a well-educated populous.

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