Engineering Trends

Is Discontentment in Engineering Becoming Epidemic?

by Todd Yuzuriha

This is a time of growing discontentment for some engineers. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the unemployment rate overall for engineers increased from 3.6 percent in the first quarter of 2002 to 4.0 percent in the second quarter. Even more unsettling, the rate for electrical and electronics engineers rose during the same period from 4.1 percent to 4.8 percent.

Moreover, the number of students graduating with engineering bachelor's degrees has declined steadily for the past 17 years. Engineering graduates peaked at 77,572 in 1985, before decreasing in the years following. In 1998, only 60,914 engineering degrees were conferred.

Engineers Feel Frustrated, Expendable

Sharon Begley's recent column in The Wall Street Journal cited engineers highly frustrated with the current engineering employment situation. They feel they are being treated as expendable labor, especially when economic times are bad.

And a 47-year-old mechanical engineer recently wrote that he would not recommend the profession, saying that many companies view engineers as labor to be discarded when times are tough. Industries such as aerospace and defense want seasoned, creative engineers during peak periods, he said, and then simply drop them when contracts end.

Salaries Start High But Stagnate Quickly

Many of today's engineers also claim salary stagnation as a source of frustration. Starting salaries for engineers are still very favorable compared with other fields of study. For the class of 2002, for example, marketing graduates are earning an average of $35,374 and business graduates are commanding an average starting salary of $35,209. In comparison, starting salaries for mechanical engineers are currently averaging $48,654, while chemical engineers are securing an average of $51,254.

The problem seems to be that practicing engineers' salaries are not keeping pace with the rise in new engineers' starting salaries. For instance, an 11-year veteran of IBM noted that his salary was only $1,000 or $2,000 higher than that earned by a new graduate with a master's degree.

Does the decline in the number of engineering graduates reflect a vote of no interest by some of our nation's brightest college students? Are there issues to be addressed by universities regarding the current engineering curricula or how engineers are utilized in industry? Has the engineering profession been irrevocably broken?

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Todd Yuzuriha is the author of How to Succeed as an Engineer: A Practical Guide to Enhance Your Career (www.engineeringsuccess.com).