In five years the US economy only created 70,000 jobs in architecture and engineering, many of which are clerical. Little wonder engineering enrollments are shrinking. There are no jobs for graduates. The talk about engineering shortages is absolute ignorance http://baltimorechronicle.com/2006/021306Roberts.shtml
Excellent article. The author is correct about the engineering workforce in America drying up. America better get their act together if they want to compete in this global economy in the future. I personally know a lot of engineers unemployed. There are absolutely no jobs out there and if you can find one that pays anything its 9 times out of 10 a contract job and there is no stability with that whatsoever. President Bush keeps talking about the fact that we need to hire more science and math teachers, and I asking myself the question, why. Why would anyone need to learn Math or science, if there are no jobs in it. Well I guess if you're a cashier at Wal-Mart you might want to learn addition and subtraction, but don't waste your time with mulitpication or division. The bottom line is that this country is turning into a service oriented society.
An article that paints a different picture: http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5519033
More specifically, this country is creating a bunch of low paid service industry jobs. Do you want to supersize that order sir?
That article trys to portray that companies can't find qualified technical people. They use this so that they can try and convince the govt to issue more H1-B visas so they can bring in cheap labor. Most of the "baby boomers" at least in engineering have been walked out and replaced by either a kid right out of college or the work has been outsourced. The only "baby boomers" I know in engineering work as contractors. A lot of these baby boomers wouldn't adapt to new technology and news ways of bringing products to market so eventually they had to be squeezed out. What can you do with an engineer who did all his or her design on a piece of paper? Those engineers that couldn't adapt to Computer Aided Design (CAD) became obsolete. Another thing, why would any of these companies want to hire a buy in his 60's when most likely his health care cost is going to cost the company and arm and a leg. That's why a lot of companies are only hiring temps or contractors. They don't want to pay the astonomical health insurance.
... not to worry. An Indian friend told me in Silicon Valley a lot of recruiting is going on to get Indian/Chinese people who moved here to move back; better lifestyle, less money (but much less cost), etc etc. So, as all those people leave there will be less competition for the remaining engineering jobs here.
Persons with H1-B visas do so much better work than some Americans, honestly. They know they're gonna have to work hard whereas some Americans believe they are entitled to something for nothing. Perhaps before someone decides to major in engineering, they should first pass a few economics and finance classes so they know the realities of supply and demand for their skill along with time value of money concepts to determine if the future pay is really worth the cost of tuition. Better yet, it should be taught to high school seniors, thorough knowledge being a condition of graduation.
Not really, it is focused on the future and predicts there will be a shortage of skilled labor and engineering in the future. There certainly isn't right now.
I think we will see a increase in wages as baby boomers retire. Decreasing supply of labors means higher wages which leads to higher prices and inflation. Retired baby boomers will feel the crunch and have less of a retirement than they thought they would. Anyone else think this will happen?
I agree with your post in theory. Think about why that is? Many visa holder IMO come from what Americans would consider third world countries. Now compare the avg American worker to say a Socialist European.....we bust our asses compared to most of them. Germany, Sweden, Finland, etc. They work alot less than us, and yeah I am jealous. Come to think of it, no I am not. I couldn't day trade under an LLC and do what I like and get a write off too!