I have been always hearing of not enough people in the science and technology field in the US. The government is always coming up with initiatives to increase the number of people. From my experience it doesn't seem true: my salary as a PhD scientist was abysmal and I left for much greener pastures (financially).
I am skeptical about the shortage.
An article quoting President Obama: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9217624/Obama_We_don_t_have_enough_engineers_
The key quote is
"We've made incredible progress on education, helping students to finance their college educations, but we still don't have enough engineers," said Obama
Here is an article from Forbes : http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2011/12/12/do-americans-have-21st-century-job-skills/
The relevant quote is the first sentence
Even with U.S. unemployment stubbornly hovering near 9%, American technology companies have tens of thousands of unfilled, high-paying jobs. Each day those vacancies persist stifles innovation and economic expansion. The problem, simply stated, is a growing shortage of people with critical skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Another Time article: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2074024,00.html. This about the US anxiety regarding other other countries' STEM graduates.
This seems to be mainly a US hobby, but there are similar calls in the UK: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/3bf7639a-765d-11e0-b4f7-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1p9cXv9tc
The key quote here is:
The UK government needs to encourage students to take maths, science and engineering degrees. Subsidised engineering degrees may encourage more to study the discipline, addressing current shortages.