According to the European Commission Labour Shortages and Surpluses Report , construction and engineering skills were ranked as two of the most sought after in Europe. They identified civil, mechanical, electrical and software engineers as some of the occupations in which there are a significant shortfall of skilled professionals — not just because of dwindling numbers coming through the European education system, but also because of a lack of applications coming from outside the union.
This global war for talent exacerbates the issue of a skills shortage as countries still need to develop infrastructure, power systems and get ahead on other engineering projects — but are struggling to fulfil the roles. In the UK, EngineeringUK has been tracking the annual demand for engineers and technicians needed just to keep pace with infrastructure and other engineering projects.
They estimate that , roles are required annually, made up of , engineers and technicians with core engineering skills, plus 79, related roles requiring a mix of engineering knowledge and other skills sets like project management.
Whilst the demand is quite clear, the reasons why this is the case is more complex — a key one pertains to the complexion of the current workforce. The average age of an engineer partly depends on which engineering discipline you are referring to; in the UK, it is around the mid 50s mark. This means that within a decade or so, many will retire, leaving a large gap in the workforce that the sector will somehow have to plug. At the other end of the career spectrum there is a lack of engineering and technical graduates, and apprentices coming through schools, colleges and universities.
While acutely felt in the UK, this combined threat can be witnessed in many countries around the world. Not much can be done about an ageing workforce apart from trying to retain as many as possible, for as long as possible. With engineers in the UK having on average around 30 years of experience, a huge knowledge transfer will also be needed before this wave of retirements begins.
However, the lack of young people entering the sector is the area where something can and in some instances is being done. Finding the solution to the skills shortage will rely on identifying its root causes. It will not be easy nor quick and will require a coordinated effort by all stakeholders.
There are three areas worth noting when it comes to why young people are not entering the sector in enough numbers: an insufficient awareness of what engineers do, a misperception of what engineering is, and a lack of opportunity for all to be involved. The choices they make and the courses they take will determine the initial talent pool coming through for companies to recruit from. So, it is important to ensure that all young people have a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of engineering career options.
Unfortunately, in the UK at least, that is not the case. For example, almost half of those between 11 and 19 years old say they know little or nothing about what engineers do.
Most young people could describe what a doctor, dentist or teacher does, because they are visible in their lives. They obviously see teachers in school and would have visited a doctor or dentist while growing up — but rarely would they have seen a professional engineer at work. This lack of awareness is compounded by the fact that most STEM teachers are not from an engineering background and cannot talk with genuine authority on the topic.
Civil engineering covers a broad range of careers but generally tends to be focused on construction. Civil engineers are responsible for designing and overseeing the design and construction of all kinds of residential, commercial and government buildings, as well as infrastructure such as transportation, roads, bridges, water systems, power systems, tunnels, docks, airports, and hospitals.
Skilled civil engineers who are capable of designing and overseeing these burgeoning infrastructure projects are in intense demand. In fact, civil engineers currently top the list of most in-demand engineering professions.
Electrical engineers are concerned with the development, design, and manufacturing of electronics and any systems that use or transfer electricity. Electrical engineers are instrumental in the design and improvements to consumer goods like computers, phones, smart devices, and appliances. Electrical engineers can also be involved in designing power systems and grids, medical devices that require electricity, robotic or automated systems, radar, and fibre optics, among many other technologies.
As you might imagine, in our increasingly tech-centric world, electrical engineers are in intense demand! What if this conventional wisdom is just the same claims ricocheting in an echo chamber? The truth is that there is little credible evidence of the claimed widespread shortages in the U.
How can the conventional wisdom be so different from the empirical evidence? There are of course many complexities involved that cannot be addressed here. The key points, though, are these:. Science and engineering occupations are at the leading edge of economic competitiveness in an increasingly globalized world, and science and engineering workforces of sufficient size and quality are essential for any 21st century economy to prosper.
These professional workforces also are crucial for addressing challenges such as international security, global climate change, and domestic and global health. While they therefore are of great importance, college graduates employed in science and engineering occupations as defined by the National Science Foundation actually comprise only a small fraction of the workforce.
A compelling body of research is now available, from many leading academic researchers and from respected research organizations such as the National Bureau of Economic Research , the RAND Corporation , and the Urban Institute. No one has been able to find any evidence indicating current widespread labor market shortages or hiring difficulties in science and engineering occupations that require bachelors degrees or higher, although some are forecasting high growth in occupations that require post-high school training but not a bachelors degree.
All have concluded that U. Were there to be a genuine shortage at present, there would be evidence of employers raising wage offers to attract the scientists and engineers they want.
But the evidence points in the other direction: Most studies report that real wages in many—but not all—science and engineering occupations have been flat or slow-growing, and unemployment as high or higher than in many comparably-skilled occupations. Because labor markets in science and engineering differ greatly across fields, industries, and time periods, it is easy to cherry-pick specific specialties that really are in short supply, at least in specific years and locations.
But generalizing from these cases to the whole of U. Employment in small but expanding areas of information technology such as social media may be booming, while other larger occupations languish or are increasingly moved offshore.
It is true that high-skilled professional occupations almost always experience unemployment rates far lower than those for the rest of the U.
As a recent graduate in Physics Engineering I am currently feeling a completely different reality. I live in Europe and am currently aware of the desire IC related companies have in talent. If you could comment on a list of companies that are looking for talent as much as I am looking for a challenge, I would appreciate, Thank you.
When I graduated from university, 10 years ago, I felt the same way. I could only find jobs listing for experienced graduates. I believe things are better now. Hardware people make half of Software people. I have seen so many coworkers switch their career. Hi Mark Nice eye-opening article! Workforce development for semiconductor industry is extremely important. We need more visibility and need help from industry in sending us students from their regions, transfers from Community Colleges and; BS in Physics, Chem, etc to our MS program.
We also have PhD programs. In my opinion, even with FA N G contribution, the salary for technical positions have been quite flat over the last few years, while it seems that the benefits for the company leadership positions have been skyrocketing,.
The shortage of engineers is a crock. Competent, good track record. Getting pushed out because I am My same age peers have all benn pushed out already. I wanted to work in this field,but turns out the pay is better tutoring high school students for the SAT. Maybe there would not be an engineering shortage if the semiconductor industry would refrain from laying off EEs older than 45 years old. Age discrimination is alive in Silicon Valley.
I have worked for five different semiconductor companies and have noticed a pattern of who gets canned during challenging economic times. A colleague of mine plotted an age distribution of who got cut in a massive layoff and it centered about 50 years old. Parents were so discouraged from the layoffs that their children have picked up on this mentality and are finding other employment in other fields.
They will not follow in their parents foot steps. This is the fall-out that this country has created. It will be a hundred years or more to win back the trust of our society as a whole.
Such a shame. Lost at the age of We need to address the mental stigma this has caused on the older worker to retool oneself and work on the mental state of their offspring. If you want to recruit the best, raise your salaries. The gap in demand and supply of software developers will increase in the future. This will add more burden to companies who are already facing issues with their Digital Transformation aspirations or projects. Skill shortage is the third and most catastrophic reason why companies look to outsource their software development projects.
Many the innovations that we enjoy every day, and some of the technical papers we studied in school came from Bell Labs which has been empty buildings for 20 years. Other Campuses sit still mostly empty or have been flattened to build something else 15 years later.
There are significantly less design engineering jobs in than there were in in the greater Chicago area. I believe the situation has got a bit better but still, we need to improve it. The shortage is definitely there. Thank you so much for writing such article, it is really nice to get such useful information. Abstraction is the key to custom processor design and verification, but defining the right language and tool flow is a work in progress.
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