printGovernment has skewed the job market royally. In anticipation of the windfall from Obamacare, an enormous, probably artificial, expansion of the health-care sector is underway. This could explain the fact that biomedical engineers are so sought after; the specialty is among the best career choices for 2012. Computer software engineers are also in demand.
High unemployed and contracting wages in a well-educated population should make it much more viable to do in America engineering work that was previously done offshore.
Alas, there is another state-orchestrated central plan that impedes the employment of “25,000 unemployed U.S.-born individuals with engineering degrees who have a Master’s or PhD and another 68,000 with advanced degrees not in the labor force. There were also 489,000 U.S.-born individuals with graduate degrees who were working, but not as engineers.” (The Center for Immigration Studies)
• “In 2010, there were 25,000 unemployed U.S.-born individuals with engineering degrees who have a Master’s or PhD and another 68,000 with advanced degrees not in the labor force. There were also 489,000 U.S.-born individuals with graduate degrees who were working, but not as engineers.
• There are 101,000 U.S.-born individuals with an engineering degree who are unemployed.
• There are an additional 244,000 U.S.-born individuals under age 65 who have a degree in engineering but who are not in the labor market. This means they are not working nor are they looking for work, and are therefore not counted as unemployed.
• In addition to those unemployed and out of the labor force, there are an additional 1.47 million U.S.-born individuals who report they have an engineering degree and have a job, but do not work as engineers.
• Relatively low pay and perhaps a strong bias on the part of some employers to hire foreign workers seems to have pushed many American engineers out their profession.
• There are many different types of engineering degrees. But unemployment, non-work, or working outside of your field is common for Americans with many different types of engineering degrees. (Detailed employment figures for specific types of engineers are provided” at The Center for Immigration Studies.)
Per a conversation with an Automotive Engineer friend in Detroit, Engineering positions are available and employment in that sector is increasing.
Seek and yee shall find!
A degree, especially a graduate degree, qualifies one to work in the public sector in the vast majority of cases (meaning someplace where results aren’t measured in the failure of the company if performance isn’t achieved).
Sadly, in my field at least formal education beyond a certain point is a negative predictor for competency. There are exceptions but they are vanishingly rare. For us, the rule is produce or die, and you’d better come up with a better way to do it than your larger competitors or you won’t even get considered for any work. Academia simply cannot fathom such conditions and teaches the wrong ‘life lessons’ in most cases. Too bad for us all.
OBama’s figures. Well, figures lie and liars figure.
The numbers might be a bit large and they might include “data entry specialists” as “engineers” (I judge all social statistics with a grain of salt) but the so-called engineering shortage is a hoax for sure.
This website says that there are 50 – 200 applicants per faculty job at Universities and over half go to foreigners (after all, why have a professor in an American University who speaks English!!??):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_born
plus the foreign born out-earn American born.
And people wonder why Millenials don’t go into Engineering? It’s lots of hard work during college, then a tough job market with high unemployment rates afterwards. It is much more profitable to go into medicine or law. (At least they won’t be outsourced!)
[Medicine and law are easier; rote learning rather than applying the laws of mathematics and physics to solve problems daily. Doctors have to muster only the most rudimentary math—or is it chemistry?—and the affirmatives get away with opting out, no doubt.]
Ilana,
I think this data, combined with your perspective on the H1-B fiasco, would make for an excellent weekly column. Please consider it.
Dennis,
In order to hire from the H1-B pool, a company must pretend to consider American applicants.