Engineering Jobs Data
NEWS from IEEE-USA
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No Significant Improvement in Fourth Quarter Engineering and Computer Jobs Data
WASHINGTON (26 January 2010) — After two quarters of small job increases for U.S. electrical and electronics engineers (EEs), their levels of employment retreated 3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009, according to data released by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. The EE unemployment rate fell from 7.3 percent in the third quarter to 5.2 percent in the fourth.
“Viewed together, these results are discouraging,” IEEE-USA Past President Gordon Day said. “The recent growth in EE employment has stalled and the improvement in the unemployment rate is entirely on the unemployed side. It appears that EEs who lost their jobs in early 2009 are taking jobs in other fields or giving up on their job searches.”
Some engineering fields fared better, some worse. Averaged across all engineers, quarter to quarter employment was essentially flat. The same was true for computer disciplines. In both cases, the unemployment rate decreased, from 5.9 percent to 5.3 percent for engineers and from 6 percent to 4.6 percent for computer professionals.
“Engineers create jobs, so improvements in engineering employment data is a leading indicator of overall job recovery,” Day said. “These data do not reflect the job recovery we were hoping for.”
Unemployed and at-risk IEEE members can find help at http://www.ieeeusa.org/careers/help/. Career enhancement resources are available at http://www.ieeeusa.org/careers/.
IEEE-USA advances the public good and promotes the careers and public policy interests of more than 210,000 engineers, scientists and allied professionals who are U.S. members of IEEE. http://www.ieeeusa.org
Contact: Chris McManes
IEEE-USA Public Relations Manager
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c.mcmanes@ieee.org
