Q&A talks about the strong demand for engineers with Lou Manzione, the dean of the University of Hartford College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture.
Q: Engineers are in high demand and demanding big salaries. What’s the demand in CT? Does CT have a big enough pipeline to feed that demand?
A: Demand for engineers is running very high now in Connecticut. Most of the state’s major industries are experiencing growth, and the aerospace industry is particularly strong.
This growth includes the multinational corporations as well as the supply chain companies. The rise in demand for engineers coincides with a major turnover in the workforce as the large number of engineers that entered the profession as a result of the space race and the lunar landings are now reaching retirement age.
Engineering programs in the state, including ours, are seeing significant enrollment growth. But the multinationals in the state also hire engineers from across the nation and around the world. The greater concern I have is for the supply chain and manufacturing companies. They depend on engineering hires from within the state and they may have problems with the current high demand for engineers. If the supply chain work leaves the state due to engineering shortages, it may not return.
Q: Supposedly the biggest demand is for engineers with five-to-15 years experience. What does that mean for recent and upcoming graduates?
A: Companies often ask for experienced engineers when growth is sudden and needs urgent because they can hit the ground running. However, those positions are harder to fill. Experienced and well-qualified engineers are usually gainfully employed and not actively in the job market. The profession is losing many experienced engineers due to retirements, but the quality of new graduates is so consistently high in the United States that they quickly move up to fill those experience gaps. The result is that many companies are seeking graduating engineers with project management and leadership skills.
Q: There’s also a pretty big construction rebound in CT right now. How is that impacting engineers?
A: We are seeing a surge in interest in civil engineering. Construction is not susceptible to outsourcing so it remains one of the most secure industries for engineers, despite experiencing its own boom and bust cycles as it did in the Great Recession and the recent rebound. In addition, construction management is an excellent career path for engineers who are able to add the project management and business skills needed for managing construction projects.
Q: How has the rise and fall of engineering as a career affected the academic side?
A: The unemployment rate for engineers always seems to be below most other professions in the U.S. There are many openings for engineering faculty across the nation right now as state budgets recover and private universities rebound, especially in their engineering colleges. The supply of doctorate level engineering faculty is constrained and there is little hope in sight. A good fraction of the Ph.D. engineering students in the U.S. are international, and we are fortunate to be able to attract the best and the brightest in the world to study here.
However, there are now many more opportunities for these international students in their home nations so the supply is tight and it will remain so for the foreseeable future. One solution is using more early retired engineers to join university faculties. They bring a wealth of real-world experience from their R&D careers that benefit both students and faculty.
Q:. Seven of the top 10 highest-paid college degrees are in engineering. Does that high pay come at a price in terms of career longevity? Does it feed into the boom or bust cycle?
A: The salaries for engineers are higher than many other professions and there are also added costs because engineers require equipment, design tools, and support teams. The value engineers deliver, however, warrants the cost in that they design and develop products that sustain companies and the entire economy. They are critical wealth creators of the economy.Â
