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Third quarter engineering unemployment data show mixed trends

WASHINGTON (7 October 2009) — The unemployment rate for U.S. electrical and electronics engineers (EEs), which had jumped to a record high in the second quarter, has eased, according to third quarter data just released by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. For the engineering profession as a whole, the rate continued to climb, but more slowly.

The jobless rate for EEs dropped from 8.6 percent in the second quarter to 7.3 percent in the third. Quarter to quarter, the EE workforce grew by 26,000.

For civil engineers, the unemployment rate dropped from 4.7 percent to 3.6 percent, but for mechanical engineers, it rose from 5.6 percent to 9.5 percent. Overall, engineering joblessness rose to 5.9 percent, a 0.4 percentage point increase compared to a 1.6 percentage point increase in the second quarter.

The unemployment rate for computer professionals went from 5.4 percent in the second quarter to 6 percent in the third. Software engineers showed a slight decline (4.7 percent vs. 5 percent), while computer scientists and systems analysts experienced an increase (7.3 percent vs. 6.4 percent).

“These mixed data suggest that the worst may be passing, but we are still a long way from the levels of engineering unemployment we would expect to see in a strong economy,” IEEE-USA President Gordon Day said. “We are also encouraged that announcements of layoffs in the high-tech sector appear to have subsided, after peaking early in the year. A clear turnaround in engineering unemployment would be a very positive sign for the general workforce, since engineers create new jobs in many categories.”

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Career enhancement resources are available for IEEE members at http://www.ieeeusa.org/careers/. Help for unemployed and at-risk members is available at http://www.ieeeusa.org/careers/help/.

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. IEEE-USA is part of IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional society with 375,000 members in 160 countries. See http://www.ieeeusa.org.

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Posted by Doug Fred E.I. on Oct 7th, 2009 and filed under Press Releases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

2 Responses for “Third quarter engineering unemployment data show mixed trends”

  1. StructEngr says:
    October 15, 2009 at 9:48 am

    Interesting to see that Civil’s unemployment went down. I guess that we would be considered a reverse industry in this type of environment since a lot of money is being put into the infrastructure.

    But at the same time a couple of billion dollars into construction is really a drop in the bucket. Especially when CA is at a 10% unemployment and 20% underemployment.

    Reply
  2. pete says:
    October 7, 2009 at 10:04 pm

    California Unemployment Trends – August 2009

    California Unemployment Trend Heat Maps:
    A map of California Unemployment in August 2009 (BLS data)
    http://www.localetrends.com/st/ca_california_unemployment.php?MAP_TYPE=curr_ue

    versus California Unemployment Levels 1 year ago
    http://www.localetrends.com/st/ca_california_unemployment.php?MAP_TYPE=m12_ue

    Reply

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