Nearly a million engineering roles were advertised across the country in August, according to RS, a product and service provider for industrial customers, placing engineering among the top ten most in-demand professions. But the profession has a dearth of new, incoming talent.
Around 141,000 U.S. students graduate with engineering degrees each year, RS said, suggesting that about 15% of open roles could be filled by new talent — leaving a deficit of 825,000 employees, not accounting for people retiring.
This field includes software developers, civil engineers, electrical engineers, manufacturing engineers, mechanical engineers and more. Software developers are the largest part of the engineering workforce, but electrical engineers are most in demand in 2024.
“Salaries have been raised to help businesses lure the experts they need, but this isn't necessarily attracting more people into the industry overall. Instead, it is understood to be largely leading to the reallocation of existing employees,” according to a release announcing the findings.
One key way to spark growth in the industry may be to encourage more women to join the field, RS said; only around a quarter of the U.S. engineering workforce is made up of women, and percentages are similar for new engineering graduates.
But women in those fields have said that they continue to face wage and promotion barriers, a report from MyBioSource said earlier this year. Women said they make less than their male counterparts — and notably, seem more likely to be promoted only if their mentor is also a woman.
A LeanIn report from 2023 also showed that the number of women in tech roles, especially, had been in a decline. Women technologists were also more likely to say they had been passed over for career advancement — and that their gender played a role in that — compared to women in nontechnical roles.
Jim Davis, director of technical solutions at RS, said in a statement that that company’s clients report major resource shortages in two areas.
“The first is general staff shortages, with the impact of limited employee resources being that some customers are struggling to complete all their projects within expected timeframes,” he said. “The second is skill shortages. Our customers are reporting that they simply don't have the skillsets required to complete certain projects.”
