How big is the core technical workforce?

9,350,500 people across computing, engineering and science — BLS major groups 15-0000, 17-0000 and 19-0000, OEWS May 2025. Broader STEM definitions range from 10,910,500 to 35,930,326 depending on who is counting.

The first technical job: Zero to Security — Zero To

Q: What is the first technical job on the way to information security?

Support, operations or a technician role. The hardest rung, and the one everything else depends on. This is the only step where a stranger has to take a risk on you. Every rung after it is an internal move or a hire by someone who can already see you do technical work.

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The hardest rung

A support workstation with a laptop open — licensed illustration, not a person in the statistic. Zero To — Zero to Security — first job. — A support workstation with a laptop open. Licensed illustration — not a person in the statistic. Photo: Unsplash

This is the hardest step on the whole ladder and it is worth being honest about why. Every rung after it is an internal move, a promotion or a lateral hire by someone who can see you already do technical work. This one is the only one where a stranger has to take a risk.

The realistic first jobs: help desk and user support, network support, a junior operations or monitoring role, a technician role in a plant or a lab, a field service role. None of them is the job you are aiming at. All of them are inside the building where that job exists.

So the help desk deserves care rather than dismissal. Computer user support is 750,600 people at a median of $61,860 — below the median of the occupation group it sits in, and above the $50,980 median for all American jobs. It is a legitimate first rung and a poor final one. The failure is not taking it. The failure is still being on it in six years because nobody said it was rung three of eight.

Apply where the technical work already is — hospitals, school districts, county government, utilities, manufacturers and logistics firms all run IT and all hire people without pedigree. Take the contract or the night shift if it is offered, because twelve months of real experience outranks another credential. And apply across the whole commuting zone rather than the county. That is what the metro pages are for.

This is the only step where a stranger has to take a risk on you. Every rung after it is an internal move or a hire by someone who can already see you do technical work.

This track, seeded in every metro area

A pipeline is not a county-sized thing. The employer, the community college, the training provider and the workforce board are almost never all inside one county line. That is why there is a page for every labour market in the United States as well as every county.

Every metro area

What is already paid for

WIOA — federal training money through a local workforce board. Every county in the United States is covered by one, it pays the provider directly, and it is not a loan. Ask for the Eligible Training Provider List. CareerOneStop.
Registered apprenticeships — a wage from the first day, no tuition. apprenticeship.gov.
Pell grants — do not have to be repaid, and most families who qualify never file. studentaid.gov.
Employer tuition reimbursement and certification vouchers — a budget already allocated to you and among the least-claimed benefits in American employment.
VA education benefits — cover certification exams, apprenticeships and non-degree technical training, not only college. Already Cleared has the detail.

Programme names, amounts and deadlines change. These are the doors; verify current terms with the source before counting on a number.

All eight rungs The campaign

Sources. Occupation employment and wages: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics May 2025 and Employment Projections 2025–35; typical entry-level education assignments from the Occupational Outlook Handbook. Competing STEM definitions and their totals: BLS, Employment and wages for alternate definitions of STEM occupations; NSF NCSES, The State of U.S. Science and Engineering and its glossary, which defines S&E-related occupations as including "S&E precollege teachers"; and Congressional Research Service report R43061, which states that there is no authoritative definition and that estimates have ranged from about 6 million to more than 21 million. All wages on these pages are national medians and are labelled as such — local wages differ, sometimes substantially, and a campaign built on other people's numbers being misleading does not get to imply a local figure it does not have. Labour markets: 2020 Commuting Zones. County economic type and needs classifications: USDA Economic Research Service County Typology Codes. County and metro counts are computed from the committed county file at build time, not asserted.

Photographs on this campaign are licensed stock used as illustration — not portraits of the people inside the federal counts. Full credits: CREDITS.md.