Electrical engineers see job losses at record levels

[FarCenter]

Computerworld - WASHINGTON -- The unemployment rate for electrical engineers reached 8.6% in the second quarter of this year, a record-setting number and double the unemployment rate for the group in the first quarter, according to the IEEE-USA.

The last time the unemployment rate of electrical engineers was anything close to this year's second quarter level was in 2003 when it reached 6.2%. By the following year, the unemployment rate for electrical engineers dropped to 2.2% and continued falling until 2007, reaching 0.9%, its low.

The IEEE-USA, part of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., believes engineering unemployment is a bellwether for the economy's recovery and for job creation. "These new data suggest we've got a long way to go as the United States attempts to regain its economic footing," Gordon Day, the group's president, said in a statement. Approximately 29,000 electrical engineers were unemployed in the April-June quarter; in the first three months of 2009, that number was 13,000.

"We're surprised by the size of the jump in the unemployment rate and have no basis to predict where it will go from here," said Day.

For all engineers, the IEEE-USA said that the unemployment rate increased from 3.9% in the first quarter to 5.5% in the second quarter. For computer professionals, the unemployment rate remained at 5.4%.

<snip> http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9135265/Electrical_engineers_see_job_losses_at_record_levels?source=CTWNLE_nlt_dailyam_2009-07-08

[MindPilot]

1. How many of those engineers lost their jobs to H1Bs? n/t

[FarCenter]

2. Some, but much of the industry has left the country

First we started importing components, then subassemblies, then whole products.

But now the design work is also being done in Asia.

A good example is PCs. As we have shifted to laptops and netbooks, the entire design and production is done in Asia.

I think that another effect is that companies are pruning back heavily on marginal products and services. Older products, services, company divisions that were kept going as cash cows have now become dogs. So products are being discontinued, services abandoned, and lines of business shut down. The old businesses tend to be in the US, while the newer ones are more heavily outsourced.