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.

Rung zero: Zero to Security — Zero To

Q: What is rung zero on the way to information security?

No degree, no certificate, no experience, and no one is coming to tell you where to start. No permission is required to begin and the money for the first step already exists. The obstacle at this rung is knowing what the next specific action is.

Home › Zero To › Zero to Security › Rung zero

Where everyone starts

A lock on a circuit board — information security work — licensed illustration, not a person in the statistic. Zero To — Zero to Security — rung zero. — A lock on a circuit board — information security work. Licensed illustration — not a person in the statistic. Photo: Unsplash

Rung zero is not a lack of ability. It is a lack of a map. Almost everyone who ends up in technical work spent time here, and the people who got out of it did not have more talent — they had a next step that was specific enough to actually take.

You do not need permission. No gatekeeper decides whether you may begin. The first credential on every track below is an exam anyone may sit or a course anyone may enrol in.

You do need a target. "Get into tech" is not a plan and it is the single most common reason people spend two years going nowhere. Pick one track, on the evidence of what employers near you actually hire, and take the first credential on it. You can change tracks later; almost every credential transfers.

The money is already appropriated. WIOA funds training through a local workforce board in every county in the United States and pays the provider directly. It is not a loan. Most people at rung zero have never heard of it. It is the single highest-value thing on this page.

The one action at rung zero: find the American Job Center covering your ZIP code through CareerOneStop, book an intake appointment, and ask by name for the Eligible Training Provider List. What is on that list is what they will pay for. That single question converts an abstract ambition into a funded plan, and it takes one phone call.

No permission is required to begin and the money for the first step already exists. The obstacle at this rung is knowing what the next specific action is.

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.