Civil/Structural Engg unemployment rates

[kaisersoze]

What are the current rates of unemployment in our industry. I read numbers upto 27%, which seem too high. Is our U.E %age identical to the genearl U.E in the country?

When I was finishing grade school back a few years back one of my professors, with decades of background of DOT work, mentioned that civil engg never has huge ups and downs in employment. I guess he was wrong.

Kaiser

 

[Lion06]

I've always heard it's significantly LOWER than the overall UE rate.

 

[SteelPE]

I would think the UE% for civil engineers would be directly tied to construction. So I would think it would be pretty high right now. Looking at the local classifieds, there are a few jobs out there, but not as many as there used to be.

Kind of gives you a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

 

[msquared48]

Take the government figures and double them to take into account all those off unemployment, and the self-employed who can no longer find the work.

Personally, I am not surprised by that figure at all.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
Motto: KISS
Motivation: Don't ask

 

[cvg]

A lot of salaried individuals are either a) being required to take leave without pay or b) being converted to hourly so they can remain employed but charge fewer un-billable hours. This reduces overhead, raises the chargeability and keeps the sharks away. The third option which is not so desirable is to either be laid off or terminated and is not quite so desirable for either the employee or the employer...

 

[firai]

I don't have any statistical evidence, but my anecdotal impression is that it is on par with or slightly higher than the average unemployment rate, or roughly about 1 in 10 looking for work. It also depends highly on locality and market segment. Again, anecdotal evidence suggests that domestic firms that only focus on residential or commercial projects are slowly recovering, but still cautious about hiring.

Structural Design Engineer
New York, NY

 

[JoshPlumSE]

I can't say that I have a great feel for the unemployment rates and such as I've never looked at those numbers or read anything about the industry in general.

My impression from talking to numerous other engineers is the following:

1) When business was booming a few years ago, everyone was working lots and lots of overtime. Either that or the jobs would be delayed for awhile because there were not enough engineers to get the jobs done. Guys who should have been retired would come back to work for a few years just because the companies they used to work for were so desperate for some extra help.

2) Now, it's more of a case of people being under-employed rather than unemployed. The guys that used to be retired, went back to being retired full time. Some folks are getting by with other non-structural work (project managment, civil, et cetera). Many companies (and government offices) have cut the number of hours their employees are working.

My main point is that the unemployment rate (as CVG suggests) may not tell the whole story. There has been a dramatic slow down in the industry... even if unemployment rates don't look too bad.

 

[cvg]

3 years ago we had approximately 25 full time employees in our department. Today we have 14. Not all are un-employed, there has been retirement and job changes. Of the remaining 14, most are on reduced hours (either 24 or 32 hour weeks or hourly). Counting the reduced hours, we are currently operating at about 35% of the level we were in 2008.

 

[pmblair]

I just saw on tv a individual who spoke with a CEO of top american oil, electric, power company, who said the CEO just hired 5k engineers. 1k in USA the other 4k outside of USA.

When the individual asked the CEO why, he said they are smarter....
I took major offense to this. I believe it has much more to do with the fact foreign engineer(not all) will work for half the pay with twice the experience of an american engineer.

These a** hats get big subsidize from the federal government, something like 20 billion a year! And then they hire foreigners .... And the president gets on tv and says there is a shortage of american engineers, as they hand 20k foreign engineer visas, while 20% of us are unemployed.

I am trying to stay positive, but this is ridicules. My neighbor installs internet for the cable company and make 65k stress free. I am starting to think i need a new line of work.

 

[GregLocock]

It's OK pmblair, not all foreign engineers will work for your pitiful rates of pay and lousy terms and conditions, so no offence taken. Mind you, most of them can at least spell.



Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[firai]

Foreign engineers are generally more affordable, but U.S. offices still hold more prestige for the most part. Our firm has hired a few engineers in Asian offices, but we've hired almost just as many in the U.S. Although we seem to be a rare case in that regard.

Structural Design Engineer
New York, NY

 

[connectegr]

Last winter I read in ENR that the construction unemployment rate was near 25%.

http://www.FerrellEngineering.com

 

[pmblair]

Greg,

Didn't mean to to offend you. The show I mentioned, was the night before and it was still resonating with me.

And when I said "foreign engineers" I was inferring to those from countries with much lower GDP then USA, and thus would take a very low salary comparatively to there experience.

My point was American companies are recovering from the economy, but are only hiring small percentages of american engineers, using billions of american tax dollars in subsidize.