<p>How bad is outsourcing in Engineering in the US and in which fields are otsourcing most prevalent. Is it much of a problem at all or are there enough jobs for everybody</p>
<p>anyone?? .</p>
<p>The Occupational Outlook Handbook says:</p>
<p>"Overall engineering employment is expected to grow about as fast as the average for all occupations over the 2004-14 period. Engineers have traditionally been concentrated in slow-growing manufacturing industries, in which they will continue to be needed to design, build, test, and improve manufactured products. However, increasing employment of engineers in faster growing service industries should generate most of the employment growth. Overall job opportunities in engineering are expected to be favorable because the number of engineering graduates should be in rough balance with the number of job openings over this period. However, job outlook varies by specialty, as discussed later in this section.</p>
<p>Competitive pressures and advancing technology will force companies to improve and update product designs and to optimize their manufacturing processes. Employers will rely on engineers to further increase productivity as investment in plant and equipment increases to expand output of goods and services. New technologies continue to improve the design process, enabling engineers to produce and analyze various product designs much more rapidly than in the past. Unlike in other fields, however, technological advances are not expected to limit employment opportunities substantially, because they will permit the development of new products and processes.</p>
<p>There are many well-trained, often English-speaking engineers available around the world willing to work at much lower salaries than are U.S. engineers. The rise of the Internet has made it relatively easy for much of the engineering work previously done by engineers in this country to be done by engineers in other countries, a factor that will tend to hold down employment growth. Even so, the need for onsite engineers to interact with other employees and with clients will remain.</p>
<p>Compared with most other workers, a smaller proportion of engineers leave their jobs each year. Nevertheless, many job openings will arise from replacement needs, reflecting the large size of this profession. Numerous job openings will be created by engineers who transfer to management, sales, or other professional occupations; additional openings will arise as engineers retire or leave the labor force for other reasons.</p>
<p>Many engineers work on long-term research and development projects or in other activities that continue even during economic slowdowns. In industries such as electronics and aerospace, however, large cutbacks in defense expenditures and in government funding for research and development have resulted in significant layoffs of engineers in the past. The trend toward contracting for engineering work with engineering services firms, both domestic and foreign, has had the same result.</p>
<p>It is important for engineers, as it is for those working in other technical and scientific occupations, to continue their education throughout their careers because much of their value to their employer depends on their knowledge of the latest technology. Engineers in high-technology areas, such as advanced electronics or information technology, may find that technical knowledge can become outdated rapidly. By keeping current in their field, engineers are able to deliver the best solutions and greatest value to their employers. Engineers who have not kept current in their field may find themselves passed over for promotions or vulnerable to layoffs."</p>
<p>“One in every three of Lockheed’s employees is over 50. To sustain our talent base, we’re hiring 14,000 people a year. In two years, we’re going to need 29,000 new hires; in three years, 44,000. If this trend continues, over the net decade we will need 142,000. We’re not alone; industry-wide, some 19% of employees are eligible for retirement. Yet Department of Education data suggests U.S. colleges and universities are only producing 62,000 engineering BAs a year - fewer than the visual and performing arts graduates - and that figure hasn’t grown in a decade.”</p>
<ul>
<li>Robert J Stevens, president and CEO of Lockheed Martin in a recent article he wrote for the Wall Street Journal</li>
</ul>
<p>Outsourcing is WAY overplayed. If you honestly choose to major in something besides engineering because you think outsourcing is a problem, I’ll laugh at you a few years down the line when engineering graduates are in even higher demand than they are now. Really…</p>
<p>Yeah, once more babyboomers retire, you’ll be saying “outsourcing-what?”, lol. In fact, the reason why they outsources is not just cheaper labor, but because of the lack of science/math/tech-based graduates here. In fact, I remember when I was a kid, and my dad was still working in IT as a manager that they were in DESPERATE NEED of techies and they were hard to come-by, and there was this whole big campaign to allow foreign graduates of American institutions to stay after their student visas expired. However, with this “outsourcing” crap slandering science/math/tech jobs, many have decided NOT to major in these sci/math/tech fields, which will make it much easier to get a job in the tech field in the future after many retire.</p>
<p>I see so the future isn’t dim.</p>