Engineering Market Analysis 2008-2018

This week I decided after many conversations to post up an article on the Engineering job market and some analysis that may help students picking majors or professionals wanting an idea of how their industry is measuring up too other engineering fields or specialties.
As far as my personal knowledge goes from day to day working in and around the industry I can tell you that this year Engineering has seen a change in demand for talented knowledgeable engineers.  It seems the more technical the better and from the job orders coming through my door it appears that 2012 is going to be no exception to what we are seeing as an increase in this demand.  However I have decided to post this article to give a more studied and analyzed data approach to this topic.

~Ysabella Trout

The article link is

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm
This link comes from my “Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition” that I downloaded from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Bellow you can read some exerts I pulled directly from this article and a chart giving employment numbers.

 

• Employment is projected to grow about as fast as the average for all occupations, although growth will vary by specialty; overall job opportunities for engineers are expected to be good.
• A bachelor’s degree in engineering is required for most entry-level jobs, but some research positions may require a graduate degree.
• Starting salaries are among the highest of all college graduates.
• Continuing education is critical for engineers in order to keep up with improvements in technology.

 

 

Overall employment change. Overall engineering employment is expected to grow by 11 percent over the 2008–18 decade, about as fast as the average for all occupations. Engineers traditionally have been concentrated in slower growing or declining manufacturing industries, in which they will continue to be needed to design, build, test, and improve manufactured products. However, increasing employment of engineers in engineering, research and development, and consulting services industries should generate most of the employment growth. The job outlook varies by engineering specialty, as discussed later.

Competitive pressures and advancing technology will force companies to improve and update product designs and to optimize their manufacturing processes. Employers will rely on engineers to increase productivity and expand output of goods and services. New technologies continue to improve the design process, enabling engineers to produce and analyze various product designs much more rapidly than in the past. Unlike the situation in some other occupations, however, technological advances are not expected to substantially limit employment opportunities in engineering, because engineers are needed to provide the ideas that lead to improved products and more productive processes.

The continued globalization of engineering work will likely dampen domestic employment growth to some degree. There are many well-trained, often English-speaking, engineers available around the world who are willing to work at much lower salaries than U.S. engineers. The rise of the Internet has made it relatively easy for part of the engineering work previously done by engineers in this country to be done by engineers in other countries, a factor that will tend to hold down employment growth. Even so, there will always be a need for onsite engineers to interact with other employees and clients.

 

In 2008, engineers held about 1.6 million jobs. Following is the distribution of employment by engineering specialty:

About 36 percent of engineering jobs were found in manufacturing industries, and another 30 percent were in the professional, scientific, and technical services industries, primarily in architectural, engineering, and related services. Many engineers also worked in the construction, telecommunications, and wholesale trade industries.

Federal, State, and local governments employed about 12 percent of engineers in 2008. About 6 percent were in the Federal Government, mainly in the U.S. Departments of Defense, Transportation, Agriculture, Interior, and Energy, and in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Many engineers in State and local government agencies worked in highway and public works departments. In 2008, about 3 percent of engineers were self-employed, many as consultants.

Engineers are employed in every State, in small and large cities and in rural areas. Some branches of engineering are concentrated in particular industries and geographic areas; for example, petroleum engineering jobs tend to be located in States with sizable petroleum deposits, such as Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Alaska, and California. Other branches, such as civil engineering, are widely dispersed, and engineers in these fields often move from place to place to work on different projects.

 

Citation: Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition, Engineers, on the Internet athttp://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm (visited October 02, 2011).