One of the best reports of 2017 was STEM Occupations: Past, Present, And Future from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Using data from BLS Occupational Employment Statistics and Employment Projections, the spotlight on statistics took a closer look at STEM occupations.

In a previous study STEM 101: Intro to tomorrow’s jobs, the BLS projected employment in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to grow to more than 9 million between 2012 and 2022, an increase of about 1 million jobs over 2012 employment levels.

According to the January 2017 report, there were nearly 8.6 million STEM jobs in 2015. STEM jobs had an above average growth rate of 10.5 percent (or 817,260 jobs) between May 2009 and May 2015. This was nearly double the growth rate (5.2 percent) for non-STEM occupations.

Most of the largest STEM occupations were related to computers and information systems.

With employment of 750,000, applications software developer was the largest STEM occupation. Computer user support specialists and computer systems analysts each accounted for over a half a million jobs.

BLS estimates that this rapid growth is projected to continue well into the 2020s.

By 2024, the STEM occupations with the largest projected growth include architectural, engineering, and related services industry (each is projected to grow by at least 8 percent).

The industry with the largest percent change in employment from 2014 to 2024 will be in computer systems design and related services.

The STEM group that is projected to grow fastest from 2014 to 2024 is the mathematical science occupations group at 28.2 percent, compared with the average projected growth for all occupations of 6.5 percent. This group includes occupations such as statisticians and mathematicians.