Janet Brewer is CPO of Arcfield, a national security engineering consultancy.

Amid social and economic turbulence throughout the nation, the job market is experiencing a similar pattern of instability. However, one trend is clear — the U.S. needs a vast, talented workforce in STEM-related fields to ensure economic strength, national security and global competitiveness.

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, as of October 2022 there were more than 16 million skilled technical jobs requiring an associate degree or higher, and the number of jobs requiring substantial STEM expertise has grown nearly 34% over the past decade.

As HR leaders, we must remember that staffing shortages are not just related to recruitment and hiring challenges— employee churn and turnover play an equally large role. As reported by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the national average turnover rate was 47.2% in 2021.

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