The Atlantic: The Ph.D Bust: America’s Awful Market for Young Scientists—in 7 Charts

The issue is STEM is too broad a category. There is good demand for computer science graduates all the way up to PhD level, but not so for, say, civil engineering graduates.

The STEM surplus is much more severe at the PhD level because funding for PhD students are not following private market demand close enough. At the undergraduate level, within a few years after the private market for a field starts worsening, students stop flocking towards the field.