Unemployment for U.S. engineers is at modern-day highs, fueled by the recession, big layoffs at tech firms and more U.S. firms moving operations offshore, according to industry data and analysts.
Equally troubling, says Ron Hira, professor of public policy at Rochester Institute of Technology, is that unemployment among all computer professionals also is near a high.
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“It indicates that the risk for (engineering) professions is much higher than other professions,” he said. “The bottom line is that entering engineering or information technology is becoming risky,” Hira said. Wages have not kept pace with other professions either, Hira says. If these trends continue, it could threaten U.S. tech dominance, he says.
IBM employs 90,000 workers, many of them engineers, in India, up from 6,000 in 2003, Hira says. He says IBM’s U.S. employment total is barely higher, at 114,000. IBM’s offshoring trend is consistent with many other large U.S. tech firms, he says. “This bodes poorly for the future,” Hira said.
Corporations are shipping jobs offshore to countries without labor laws and unions, and importing cheap labor via H-1B and related work visas that are not monitored. With no good jobs, our economy tanks.