The Downside of Having More Engineers

[Al Skierkiewicz]

I think one needs to ask the question..."If the US has 200,000 engineering jobs that are unfilled, how are the current engineers keeping up with the demand?"
I think the answer is "They are not". There may be many companies with ideas or projects that simply cannot be be accomplished so they remain in limbo until the company can fill the jobs needed. Ironically, that would lead to additional jobs in the production and implementation of the ideas. To be more specific as Art has pointed out, the electrical supply industry is sadly lacking engineers. This translates to maybe less efficient methods of transmission, generation and monitoring. We have all heard of the aging power grid and engineers are needed to correct that problem. Other industries are also dealing with similar problems. Has anyone seen any truly innovative furnace designs recently? How about faucets, solar power devices, snow blowers?
In past years there has been a definite shift of engineering jobs to other countries but US firms are starting to see the error of that decision. To outsource means giving up control, the security of company ideas, the ability to meet deadlines, and the loyalty of it's workers. There is always the problem of overseeing the work, communicating with a team that is halfway around the world in a different time zone and responding to problems as they occur. The money saved evaporates in travel costs, workers become more demanding as to wages and benefits, shipping costs skyrocket. What do you do when your customer is waiting for your product and it's in a shipping container somewhere in Hong Kong waiting to get loaded on to a (slow) ship.
I remember all the news stories in the 90's about how the US was turning into a service related workforce. Engineering and manufacturing needed to be shifted to countries with cheap labor and no environmental controls while the majority of US workers would be providing data service, health care service, business support and computer service to the world. It sounded good to many people then, but there were others that saw it as short sighted. It forced manufacturers to change designs so that systems could be maintained from afar. Service people could call in their repairs or simply tell you what you needed to replace over the phone. Often the cost of repairs skyrocketed as manufacturers who lacked sufficient technicians to make repairs were forced to design and deliver systems that allowed replacement of entire subsystems instead of attacking a single failed component. Initially this lead to higher new sales as consumers were forced to replace instead of repair but now, consumers are finding it hard to convince their CFOs that they have to replace a system that hasn't even been depreciated.
As to unions and wages, unions are simply workers banning together to allow for collective bargaining with their employer. Generally that means setting minimum wage rates and benefits for employee groups with different skill levels, fixing job responsibilities (jurisdiction) and providing a method for dealing with the company on issues and contract violations. Although there are engineers who are union members, it is more the exception than the rule. I am a union member who is an engineer but my group is more at a technician level.