A new global study has revealed that ‘optometrist’ is the most Googled profession within the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) category in Australia and New Zealand.
It is also the most popular STEM job searched in Canada, Guyana (South America), South Africa, the Netherlands, Estonia, and Moldova.
International electronic and electrical supplies company RS Components, which operates in Australia, used Google’s Keyword Planner to establish the average monthly search volume in each country for nearly 100 STEM jobs.
STEM professions include astrophysicists, geneticists, microbiologists, neuroscientists, software developers, chemical engineers, optometrists, and data analysts, as well as science and maths teachers, to name a few.
In Australia, analysis of labour force data by the Department of Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business shows that between November 2014 and November 2019, employment in STEM occupations increased by 19.7%, which is 1.9 times higher than the growth rate for other occupations.
In its study, RS Components used two search terms – for example, “data analyst” and “data analyst job” – to determine the most searched for STEM job during November 2019 in each country.
Optometry Today in the UK noted that ‘optometrist’ had the fourth highest number of monthly search hits, with cancer researchers taking the top spot.
Endocrinologist and physiologist were the second and third most Googled STEM roles in the UK respectively.
RS Components, which has 8,000 employees and operates in 32 countries, said the STEM field is growing and related jobs in the area are increasingly in demand, prompting the company to discover which jobs are the most popular.
According to the company, in the UK STEM sector is fast-growing, with research suggesting that jobs are predicted to grow at double the rate of other occupations, creating 142,000 jobs between now and 2023.
Similarly, it noted, in the US, employment in STEM occupations has grown 79% since 1990, increasing from 9.7 million to 17.3 million.
More information about the study +can be found here.
