In Brief

Which Jobs Actually Use Math?

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By Tia Ghose
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(Image credit: Woman doing math image via Shutterstock)

Sure, your 7th grade algebra teacher claimed you'd need math all the time. But something doesn't add up: most Americans never use advanced math on the job, research suggests.

Less than a quarter of workers use math beyond fractions at their jobs, according to a survey of 2,300 workers conducted by Michael Handel, a researcher at Northeastern University in Massachusetts. And highly skilled blue-collar workers — think machinists, mechanics and the like — use advanced math such as algebra more than their white-collar peers.

About 86 percent of jobs require simple addition and subtraction, but only 5 percent of jobs required calculus. Of course, before people toss out their math books, it's important to note that the best blue-collar jobs do require high-level math such as algebra, while more than a fifth of white-collar jobs require statistics, The Atlantic reported.

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Tia Ghose
Tia Ghose
Managing Editor

Tia is the managing editor and was previously a senior writer for Live Science. Her work has appeared in Scientific American, Wired.com and other outlets. She holds a master's degree in bioengineering from the University of Washington, a graduate certificate in science writing from UC Santa Cruz and a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. Tia was part of a team at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that published the Empty Cradles series on preterm births, which won multiple awards, including the 2012 Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism.