Chapter 3: Science & Engineering Indicators 93
Engineers: Shifting Employment Opportunities and Trends
An estimated 1.6 million people were employed as engineers in the United States in 1992. The engineering workforce contracted during the late 1980s and early 1990s, losing nearly 50,000 members between 1987
and 1992. (See figure 3-8 and appendix table 3-7.) At the same time, the unemployment rate for engineers
doubled, increasing from the traditional level of around 2 percent to 3.8 percent in the third quarter of 1993. (See appendix table 3-11.) The unemployment rate for engineers is now higher than it was
during the "aerospace recession" of the early 1970s and is also higher than the 2.8- percent unemployment rate for all professional specialty occupations combined. In addition, recent engineering graduates are having more difficulty than their 1980s
predecessors in landing their first jobs.(Click here for footnote 43.) But despite the weaker employment conditions faced by new engineering graduates, hardly any are forced to join the ranks of the unemployed,
and compared to graduates who majored in other disciplines, they are better off in terms of the number of employment offers and in the salaries they receive.
All of these observations--the shrinking workforce, the rising unemployment rate, and the falloff in employer recruiting--indicate that the engineering profession is currently feeling the pinch of the recession, cutbacks in defense spending, and
industry downsizing. These numbers, plus the sluggish growth in salaries relative to other professional occupations, could discourage students from seeking engineering careers.(Click here for footnote 44.)
Engineering training, however, can be a useful entry into nonengineering jobs. In addition to engineers' key role in innovation and the design, production, and marketing of new/improved goods and services, engineering training has been found to be a
good prerequisite for management, law, and even medicine. It is much easier to teach marketing and management skills to an engineer than it is to teach engineering to business graduates (Engineering Manpower Commission
1991b). The United States is following a pattern established in Japan. That is, individuals with engineering backgrounds are entering management and finance in greater numbers than in the past (Engineering Manpower
Commission 1990).
Footnote 43:
Even the top engineering schools reported significant reductions in the number of job offers received by their students. For example, Stanford University graduates were used to receiving five to seven job offers each; that number is now down to one
or two (Wall Street Journal 1993). Also, many university placement directors are reporting that more engineering bachelors degree graduates were planning to attend graduate school. But many of these recent
graduates were not continuing their education in engineering. For example, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the number of engineering graduates applying to medical school rose nearly 40 percent between 1991 and 1992. See Engineering Manpower Commission (1992b).
Footnote 44:
A small decline in students seeking engineering careers did occur during the 1970-72 "aerospace recession." See Engineering Manpower Commission (1991c).
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