<p>quicksilver,</p>
<p>I’m a 50-something and write from some experience. </p>
<p>I didn’t mean to say all civil engineers can work at municipalities. I simply pointed out one venue that will stay here… along with any other venue which demands a hands-on/eyes-on function. That type of on-site demand does not exist in many other fields.</p>
<p>The two fields I mentioned with regards to townships were my own (electrical) and aerospace. There might be an electrical engineer working in a municipality somewhere, but probably not as the function of an electrical engineer. The examples you cited are handled by electricians. An electrical engineer can do that function, but it’s waste of a diploma.</p>
<p>As for aerospace engineers being hired by townships. C’mon. ;-)</p>
<p>Your example about the semi industry with regards to outsource… well… I’m still laughing!!! That’s the field I’m in!!! … have been for over 30 years! It’s not just the fab jobs (BTW… tons of process and test engineers) that have gone to Asia. It’s the design jobs too. You’re kidding yourself if you believe differently. </p>
<p>It’s not just the semi designers getting hit. It’s across the electronics industry. I wish I could share with you the SIA data showing the declining numbers for demand creation in the USA. We are dropping significantly every year. </p>
<p>Even with the rising salaries overseas, there are still enormous inequalities which force companies to seek foreign design services and open foreign design centers.</p>
<p>The exodus of good jobs is at the professional level and has been for years. IMHO, that’s the untold dirty little secret behind our country’s financial instability. The professional sector has been, and is being gutted.</p>
<p>I’ve been far luckier than I deserved to be in my career (life in general too!) and have only one child. I’ll be able to shield him, launch him, and support him through just about anything. His education, a house, cars… even food on the table if I had to. I can take care of it all. It’s the rest of you I wring my hands every day for. Unless our politicians do something to make our professional workforce competitive with third world countries, the outlook is bleak with no safe port in this storm.</p>