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Strong employment prospects. There are shortages of science workers throughout the world, according to the consulting firm ManpowerGroup. In fact, engineering workers are the third most in-demand occupational field in the world. Technicians rank fourth, and computer and information technology professionals rank sixth. There’s a shortage of software engineers in more than twenty countries, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, and the United Kingdom, according to the recruitment firm Michael Page. Other science careers where there is a shortage of workers include electronics engineers (nineteen countries), electrical engineers (sixteen countries), data analysts (eleven countries), and hardware engineers (six countries). The USDL predicts that employment of computer and information technology professionals in the United States will grow by 13 percent during the next decade. Career opportunities for those in life, physical, and social science occupations will grow by 10 percent. Both of these occupational fields are growing faster than the average for all careers. The outlook is also good for engineering professionals. Employment is expected to grow by 7 percent during the next decade. The strongest opportunities will be found in robotics and renewable energy. By 2026, the USDL predicts that there will be more than 876,000 new jobs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. Rewarding work environment and many career options. A career in science is fulfilling because you get to use both your creative and practical sides to develop new technologies (or improve existing ones), solve problems, and make the world a better place. In the instance of robotics, you get the chance to develop robots that will save humans time, toil, and the risk of working in dangerous conditions, among other uses. There’s a common misconception that science workers spend most of their time in dreary, windowless laboratories or

8 COOL CAREERS IN SCIENCE: ROBOTICS DEVELOPERS