A thinktank has calculated that the UK must boost its output of science, technology, engineering and maths graduates by nearly 50% to satisfy market demand.

The Social Market Foundation’s report, In the Balance: The STEM human capital crunch, estimates that job vacancies requiring degrees in STEM subjects will climb to around 100,000 per year as older generations retire.

It purports that the government’s crackdown on immigration and uncertainty over the country’s future membership of the EU will mean that these vacancies will need to be filled by UK graduates.

If the current number of STEM graduates who go into non-STEM professions stays the same, the UK will need to produce an additional 40,000 STEM graduates every year until 2020. This represents a rise of almost 50%.

The largest area of future STEM employment will be in engineering, with nearly one in five graduates to enter the profession between now and 2020.

With rising demand for such graduates, find out why engineering might be the career for you.