Engineers, Plumbers, Mechanics and Chefs

Let’s start asking some basic questions about exactly what kinds of workers are finding jobs in this impaired economy… and who’s not. First there is an “almost” myth that we don’t have enough engineering graduates to fill our needs. There is a slight truth to that, but since most companies don’t spend much time training new engineering grads and since the jobs that need filling require very specific engineering skills, there are a number of unemployed U.S. engineers. For example, according to the December 10^th TechCrunch.com, in the “Silicon Valley, there is a shortage of Objective C developers, analog engineers who understand low power design, and good user-interface de signers. There are also shortages of radio-frequency engineers in New York City and in Indiana.” Those jobs, and a host of comparably specific engineering specialties, go begging. But there are a lot of engineering skills that don’t have comparable job demand.

And for those students coming from overseas to get graduate degrees and then fill engineering positions here in the United States, it seems as if the grass is greener in China and India these days:

• Nearly 60% of U.S. engineering post-graduate degrees and 40% of graduate degrees are awarded to foreign nationals. In the past, most of these students would remain in the U.S. after graduation and eventually become U.S. citizens. Now, because of flawed U.S. immigration policies, most buy one-way tickets home.
• The world’s best and brightest aren’t beating a path to the U.S. any more. In previous years, H-1B visas for foreign nationals were in such high demand that they had to be awarded by lottery. This year, the annual quota of 65,000 hasn’t even been used yet. Instead, these workers are staying home and entrepreneurship is booming in countries like India and China. TechCrunch.com.

Further, the myths of the economic benefits of a college degree are beginning to fall into question. It’s not whether a college education is valuable, but the kinds of degrees that generate work tend not to be available for Russian studies, English and History majors. “Unemployment may be beginning to fall, but millions of people are still having a hard time finding work. But there are parts of the U.S. economy where jobs are going begging, and it turns out that half of the top 10 occupations facing labor shortages don't require a college degree, according to the ManpowerGroup's (MAN) 2011 Talent Shortage Survey, released Thursday. For the survey, Manpower conducted telephone interviews with more than 1,300 businesses in the U.S.

“For the second year in a row, skilled trades jobs such as plumbers, mechanics and chefs top the list of careers for which employees are in short supply. Indeed, there have been worker shortages in these areas not just for the past two years, but for virtually every year of the past decade.” DailyFinance.com, May 24^th. Indeed, half the jobs secured by the 2010 college graduates did not require a college degree, although these students often displaced applicants with just a high school diploma.

While a college diploma generally results in better pay, if you take out the benefits of scholarships and grants, a cost analysis brings the benefits of financial sacrifice into a more accurate picture, one that is likely to distort further as tuition continues to rise beyond the cost of living, particularly taking into account the extra interest charged on educational borrowings: “A typical college graduate earns roughly $650,000 more than a typical high school graduate over the course of a 40-year career, according to the Pew Research Center study. But that figure drops to a net payoff of $550,000 four decades later, after accounting for out-of-pocket costs for college tuition and fees, and subtracting foregone earnings during the time in college cost opportunity to earn approximately $94,000 in income d uring the time while in college, versus the average annual income of $23,000 for a high school graduate during this same time period, the net benefit of going to college comes out to $550,000 four decades later, the report noted.” DailyFinance.com.

A Georgetown University report, summarized in the May 26^th FastCompany.com, tracks earnings, based on majors: “Engineers are the king of the cash hill, raking in a median salary of $75K, while Psychology and Social Worker graduates beg for the trickle-down table scraps, amounting to $42K. The brightest light in the non-hard sciences is the Social Sciences, with economists earning $70K, using their savvy knowledge of money to rake in more than their compatriots in both finance and architecture...Art majors are pretty much doomed to small studio apartments, maxing out at $46K for a career in film… For (really) long term thinkers, or for those who love studying, graduate school boosts earnings roughly 20-65%, which is several hundred thousand dollars in life-time earnings--if you can make it through the debt-addled, post-grad, Ramen-noodle dirge of your late 20s and 30s.”

There is little doubt of the lifestyle and extrinsic values of a college degree. The United States has to be a better place with educated citizens. But for those looking that the immediate rewards that used to be associated with a university education, the answers aren’t so simple anymore. Clearly, the nature of the education becomes the variable that commands income.

I’m Peter Dekom, looking behind the statistics.