near 120K a year. If you believe that, I have some land to sell you.....and maybe that'll make up for all the pay cuts I've taken over the years.
Also.....America does NOT have an engineering shortage. There are MANY studies out there to support this. It's all about cheap labor, as usual.
Study: There Is No Shortage of U.S. EngineersA new study argues that the offshoring of U.S. jobs is caused by cost savings and not a shortage of U.S. engineers or better education in China. However, the study warns that the United States is losing its global edge.
A commonly heard defense in the arguments that surround U.S. companies that offshore high-tech and engineering jobs is that the U.S. math and science education system is not producing a sufficient number of engineers to fill a corporations needs.
However, a new study from Duke University calls this argument bunk, stating that there is no shortage of engineers in the United States, and that offshoring is all about cost savings.
This report, entitled "Issues in Science and Technology" and published in the latest National Academy of Sciences magazine further explores the topic of engineering graduation rates of India, China and the United States, the subject of a 2005 Duke study.
In the report, concerns are raised that China is racing ahead of both the United States and India in its ability to perform basic research. It also asserts that the United States is risking losing its global edge by outsourcing critical R&D and India is falling behind by playing politics with education. Meanwhile, it considers China well-positioned for the future.
Dukes 2005 study corrected a long-heard myth about India and China graduating 12 times as many engineers as the United States, finding instead that the United States graduates a comparable number.http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Careers/Study-There-Is-No-Shortage-of-US-Engineers/ Report refutes claims of dire need for more H-1B visasJune 17, 2008
In an address at the National Society of Black Engineers Region VI conference, Bill Gates perpetuated the belief that the United States is not graduating enough science and engineering majors and that that the overall performance of high school students in science and math is declining.
< Ephraim Schwartz is on vacation. This blog post first appeared on November 17, 2007, but with the recent Congressional efforts to make it easier for tech companies to hire foreign nationals, it seemed timely to revisit. --Eds. >
Typically, these two myths are used as an excuse to promote the need for more H-1B visas.
High-tech industry leaders have dismissed as not true any suggestion that the real reason for wanting an increase is in order to hire cheap labor.
Now a new study, "Into the Eye of the Storm: Assessing the Evidence on Science and Engineering Education, Quality, and Workforce Demand," by Lindsay Lowell, Georgetown University and Hal Salzman, The Urban Institute refutes those claims.
The Urban Institute describes itself as a "nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research and educational organization that examines the social, economic, and governance problems facing the nation."
The report confronts two major issues, that of a labor shortage and a decline in educational excellence in science and math of U.S. students.
According to the report available data indicates increases "in absolute numbers of secondary school graduates and increases in their math and science performance level."
The report compares performance not only with national test results over a number of years but with test results of student performance from other countries as well.
For example, the study found that in 1982 high school graduates earned 2.6 math credits and 2.2 science credits. By 1998 the average was 3.5 for math and 3.2 for science credits.
In addition, the percentage of 13-year-olds taking algebra increased by 38 percent over that time period.
Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) shows steady improvement in both math and science test scores.
In another part of the report, the authors cites studies that looked at six international tests administered by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The aggregate data concluded: "U.S. students have generally performed above average in comparisons with students in other industrialized nations."
As far as a shortage in computer science graduates to fill available jobs in the United States the study concludes that "the education system produces qualified graduates far in excess of demand."
Finally the reports concludes that, "assessing the claims of labor market shortages is crucial. Purported labor market shortages for scientists and engineers are anecdotal and also not supported by the available evidence."
But this doesn't seem to stop the steady drumbeat from high tech executives who keep saying over and over again that there is a shortage both in qualified computer science graduates now and in the pipeline in our schools to meet future needs.Read the report. I found it both provocative and enlightening.
http://weblog.infoworld.com/realitycheck/archives/2008/06/report_refutes_1.html 
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