There has been a major drop in students pursuing engineering degrees at a time when many older engineers are starting to retire. One would think the opportunities for engineering jobs would be increasing, as they are; but, sadly, the pool of potential qualified job seekers is decreasing. But as a recent report notes:

“The numbers of students studying engineering have declined in recent years, both in the United States and in Western European countries. Many factors have contributed to this decline – including the difficulty of the curriculum, the attractiveness of alternate paths to good technical jobs, and the lack of attractiveness of projected employment paths for engineering graduates.”

Despite the push of STEM education over the past decade or longer, students enrolling in engineering disciplines is on the decline. When added to the fact that the Baby Boomer generation of engineers are now starting to retire in large numbers, the availability of new engineers entering the workforce is dwindling.

One would think the employment opportunities would attract more students to choose engineering. However, a number of factors have been outlined as causes of this decline.

1. The curriculum is difficult. Study usually starts with two years of intense math and science without any context to engineering and followed by hard engineering science courses taught by professors and graduate students with little applied engineering experience.

2. The curriculum is densely packed and inflexible. “The four-year bachelor’s degree programs in engineering schools are typically highly lock-stepped, with prerequisites offering little flexibility for individualized programs or broadening experiences – such as a semester abroad. Engineering students who miss a required step in the proper order often must take an additional semester or year to complete their studies – at considerable extra expense and loss due to postponed employment.”

3. Other paths to good jobs are easier. Computer science has become one of the preferred alternatives, as jobs are plentiful too, but seem more interesting and involve much less formidable study.

4. Engineers are treated like commodities by employers. Many employers are looking to hire recently graduated students as their salaries are lower, and they may have learned the latest techniques their current employees have not had the opportunity to learn as they are working on specific jobs.

5. Traditional entry level jobs are being offshored. The offshoring of jobs, particularly entry-level positions, has become a much-used practice in many industries. Engineering seems to have embraced the option as they can pay much less to those hires. This lessens the experience of entry-level engineers in the countries doing the outsourcing, particularly the United States.

When this is added to what is being called the ‘Silver Tsunami’ - the mass retirement of engineers from the baby boom era - the shortage of engineers is not surprising.

Another issue that the engineering education and availability of employees is the shortage of representation by women and minorities. Despite the recent International Women in Engineer Day, women have no where near demographic parity in engineering. This is also true of minorities entering the fields in the United States.

There is a need to increase interest at the high school level for STEM programs, and to provide hands on learning experience if this situation is going to change. Other countries like China have seen a major increase in engineering students - “China currently has 3.7-million engineering students in its pipeline.” The US had 80,000 engineering students in the mid 1980s, but that number fell to under 65,000 by the end of the 20th century and is not growing significantly in the 2000s.

If the United States is going to keep a competitive level in innovation, this situation needs serious attention.