Unemployment in engineering fields ?

[tejasvi]

most paying jobs for engineering streams are

1. petroleum engineering

2. chemical engineering

3. Computer engineering

4. Electrical engineering

but reading this http://www.engineeringdaily.net/third-quarter-engineering-unemployment-data-show-mixed-trends/

i see they have very high unemployment.

what is happening ?

are only some people getting in engineering getting all money. and number of jobs for fresh grads not there ?

[calvin8]

Even though this question was asked almost two years ago, it is a really important question, and while I do not have the answer, I hope someone can respond with some data that might explain what's going. 

[Guest |||]

There likely are reasons why this is the case, though the reasons could well be complicated and difficult to prune out of "In my opinion" or "I think".

 

To spare you those from me, the best advise I think anyone can give you is, consider where you live right now or will want to live post schooling, look at the demand market of that area and try to do some research.  Will there be any closures or are there plans for new projects?  What do the people who work there say?  What are the projected plans for the specific area, does it looks like it might become more centralized or is it a city with dying prospects? 

[calvin8]

Thanks for the reply NicholasCage, you offer sound advice. To expand on your point, I found that the Bureau of Labor Statistics provides an extraordinary amount of data regarding supply and demand for a huge number of fields and jobs (http://www.bls.gov/emp/#tables). Unfortunately, they don't provide regional statistics, but this site (http://www.projectionscentral.com/Home/Index) does. Projections Central doesn't have quite as much data as BLS does, but it's something. 

 

One of the hardest pieces of information to extract is trends over time, especially when time is on the order of multiple decades. Biomedical engineering is a hot career now (61% growth over the next 10 years according to BLS), but will it still be hot in 2030? What about 2040? I would like to have an idea now whether the BME field might experience any massive negative growth before I retire. I suppose that's one reason to keep up with current events in your field. 

Edited August 18, 2013 by calvin8

[aldoushuxley]

My sister did her associates in BME and got right into a job starting at $45,000/year. I don't know much about the field itself, but I would guess that women are highly sought after for diversity purposes. 

[spectastic]

That article is from 2009, one of the worst years for entry level employment in a long time.

 

The engineering job market in Southeast Texas is through the roof, with the expansion of various chemical plants and refinaries, as well as new opportunities being created by the XL Keystone. In addition, in college, you may have heard that the baby boomer engineers are retiring, and the void needs to be filled NOW. I didn't believe it back when I was in Iowa, but now that I'm working, it's true. There are several people on site who are supposed to be retired, but losing their many years of expertise would be like cutting off the arms of a quarterback. The companies here need engineers now so that they can be developed and mentored to make sure the baton gets passed on properly. And looking around, a lot of them have like 30+ years of experience. Not only do they possess valuable knowledge that has to be inhereted, that kind of knowledge can lead to complacency and disregard for morals and ethics "They're not going to fire me, I'm too valuable". At my company in particular, we are having trouble retaining people, because apparently they are all able to find better, more lucrative opportunities (also due to a variety of other reasons). Back in Iowa, it was great to have even one internship. Down here, it's normal to have at least 3 internship/co-ops for a graduating senior. If you follow where the oil money is, you'd be in Texas.

 

Also fun fact well known around here but maybe not elsewhere: the operators usually hold some sort of two year technical degree. Their base pay matches the engineers' starting salary. With full overtime, which consists mostly of sitting on their butts chitchatting or watching youtube (especially night shifts), they probably get paid up to 150k if not more. I find that pretty ridiculous

Edited December 13, 2013 by spectastic