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With all the graduates in science and engineering, plus all the folks currently looking for work, it's a challenging time. There is the constant chatter from the big boys of tech for the need for more technicians and people with technical aptitudes.
But look at these numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on electrical engineers (from a USA Today article):
Numbers from the U.S. Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics issued Tuesday showed the unemployment rate for electrical engineers hit a record high, 8.6%, in the second quarter, more than doubling from 4.1% in the first quarter.
The rate for all engineers climbed to 5.5%, up from 3.9% in the first quarter. Those are still better than the nation's overall unemployment rate of 9.7%, but the world is also still minting thousands of new graduates.
Good point. The shedding of jobs along with new graduates makes it difficult to say with certainty that there aren't enough engineers and technologists to meet the demand now and in the future, especially with the number of older engineers scrambling for work. As the article points out, some are taking three to four years to find jobs.
And then, there is this (from the same article):
In 2007, amid a renewed push in Congress to get more taxpayer funding for science teachers -- and more student aid for science and engineering majors -- Teitelbaum [Michael Teitelbaum of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation] told lawmakers that no objective data have found overall shortages of scientists and engineers.
Such warnings, he said, are "simply the expressions of interests by interest groups and their lobbyists." He cited companies that employ scientists and engineers, universities, and even immigration lawyers.
Oh, and then there are the challenges of a global economy (once again, from the USA Today article):
Scan Bureau of Labor Statistics projections and you won't find words like "crisis" or even "shortfall."
In its most recent Occupational Outlook Handbook, BLS says engineering employment is, indeed, expected to grow 11% by 2016 -- a 1.3% average yearly increase typical for all occupations -- but that the number of engineering graduates "should be in rough balance with the number of job openings."
The number of engineering bachelor's degrees grew 10% from 2000 to 2005, according to the National Science Foundation, a 1.7% average yearly increase.
You won't find hand-wringing, but you find handbook analysts warning that off-shoring of engineering work "will likely dampen domestic employment growth to some degree."
Worldwide, BLS says, well-trained, often English-speaking engineers are "willing to work at much lower salaries than U.S. engineers."
This is a fact many are facing in science, engineering and technology careers as more and more domestic technology work moves overseas. |
Comments (4)
I am laughing hysterically....on the one hand, you write an article that states that "U.S. Scientists See H-1B Problems as Hindering Progress". Then, on the other hand, you write an article that states "the unemployment rate for electrical engineers hit a record high, 8.6%, in the second quarter"
WHICH IS IT????
Since you don't seem to know, let me enlighten you: ask almost any natural-born, American scientist or engineer who does not work in academia what the job situation is like and they will tell you it is grim.
I've been unemployed and underemployed for almost 3 years. A mechanical engineer down the street has given up all hope of ever finding another job in his field. I'm not looking for a job paying $120,000. I would gladly take something for half that amount. But the jobs don't exist. The IBMs and GEs of the world have been permitted to shred those jobs, send them overseas and fill the few remaining with low-wage visa-holders.
I've tried networking and contacting managers and mailing resumes and visiting companies and going to job fairs....I've tried everything, to no avail. Companies do not want 50-something engineers, no matter how current our training and no matter how deep and extensive our experience. Corporations can hire foreign workers for $25,000 per year and these workers will not raise a peep because they are so desperate to stay here.
I am not blind. Visit the office buildings along Route 128 around Boston. At 5:00 p.m., Indians and Chinese pour out of the buildings, 4 and 5 to a car.
Between all the outsourcing and the importation of lower-wage Indians and Chinese, the job situation has become impossible. That is why unemployment is now at about 20% - not the 9.6% stated officially by the government.
I do NOT want to hear from any foreign writer on this board. You can insult American-born engineers as much as you want, but my skills and my colleagues' skills are not only a match for yours, but most times our skills far exceed yours. I have seen the "quality" of work coming back from overseas. Much of it is awful and needs total reworking.
AND DO NOT TELL ME YOU CANNOT FIND AMERICAN WORKERS. IT'S A LIE.
I may not have a job, but I do still have the right to vote. So here's a message to my congressional leaders:
I have voted at every election since I was old enough to vote. At the next election, not only will I not vote for you, I am going to actively work to unseat you because you do not care about me and my colleagues. If things do not improve (and I know they won't) you should be very afraid for YOUR job.
Posted by TheBobs | July 14, 2009 2:36 PM
they imported 6 million (yes million) H-1bs and their wives during a 8 yr downturn with zero job creation. at the beginning there were 4.5 million jobs for americans. subtract 6 million. what is the real unemployment rate for american engineers huh? when i visit IT departments at big companies they have so many indians they have to hire indian chefs!
Posted by fred | September 14, 2009 2:27 AM
EE/CS grad here, graduated in the top quartile of my class in 2002. Haven't been able to find a job despite sending out thousands of resumes in application to positions.
My fellow grads are in the same boat essentially; no jobs, 7 years later.
What the h*ll am I supposed to do now? My life has been ruined by trying to pursue a tech career.
Posted by Mark | December 8, 2009 3:32 AM
I am part of the permenant temp work force. I am an engineer and am in my late 50s. I am a chemical engineer. Every company I work for has tons of legal and illegal immigrants working in engineering/IT positions. My last job was basically babysitting a group of pakistani programmers. They had been doing this work for two years and had gone from awful to pretty average. Trust me, none of these guys walked on water. They were your typical young engineer, green. My main function was writing functional specifictions and design documents because the Pakastanis' command of English was limited.
They were working for $16/hr. They were not working for the company but rather for another Pakastani immigrant (who had been in the country longer) who then subcontracted back. This way the main company did not "directly" employ the illegals.
It is very hard for an American to work for $16/hr because most Americans come oout of College with significant debt. At $16/hr you might as well drive a truck (it pays better). Frankly, it really makes no sense for an American to go into engineering or IT with entry level wages depressed. I am only hoping that I can get a few more years end before I retire.
Posted by David | February 4, 2010 1:50 PM