This is a crucial point. "More is better" is a naive notion, but it's easier to promote than "quantity over quality."

When mathematicians get jobs in Wall Street by the thousands, there are either too many mathematicians churned out by the education system, too few problems or both. They're not getting those jobs to work on theories about complex systems like a few physicists did in the 1980's. The new generation is there to get respectable wages.

The ending is gold:

"claims of shortage are "often issued by parties of interest" such as employer associations. In the past, some U.S. businesses have been accused of using the shortage argument to justify outsourcing and hiring of foreign workers.

Susan Traiman of the Business Roundtable criticizes the new study, saying that it gives an illusion of a robust supply because it bundles all STEM fields together. There may be an oversupply in the life sciences and social sciences, she argues, but there is no question that there are shortages in engineering and the physical sciences. The findings "are not going to make us go back and re-examine everything we've been been calling for," she says."