Electrical Engineering Career Outlook

Several years ago I saw an article that estimated the average career length of a digital engineer to be about 7 years. The replacement rate for digital engineers from new college graduates was estimated to be about 14.3% per year. According to the article, after 7 years on average, digital engineers either move in to management, move to sales and marketing, leave the field for another field altogether, or drop out of professional life to run a wilderness resort, etc. I have seen examples of all of these throughout my career. I can't find the original source of the article, but being past the 8 year mark in the industry, I decided to do some research on the current prospects. I looked at the statistics for the Electrical and Electronics engineering profession provided by the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. Here is what I learned from my research.

ee_2002 = 292000 (Total Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2002) [1]
ee_2012 = 309000 (Total projected Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2012) [1]
deg = 20095 (Total bachelor and masters degrees for Electrical, Electronics, and Communication Engineering for 2002) [2]

rep_r_2002 = ee2002 / deg = 6.9% (Replacement rate for Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2002)

Because there is some actual growth in Electrical and Electronics Engineer jobs between 2002 and 2012, the actual average replacement rate over this period will be a bit lower at 6.3%.

These rates correspond to average career lengths of between 14.5 and 15.9 years. This is quite a bit longer than the article I saw, but this calculation is based on the entire EE profession and not just digital engineers.

All of these calculations are just estimates and assume all bachelors and masters degree candidates first enter the work force after getting the degree.

One thing to note from my research is that the growth outlook for the electrical engineering profession in the U.S. is not that good over the next 10 years according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The total growth will only be about 5.8% or about 0.58 % per year. For all engineering professions the growth from 2002 to 2012 is from 1478000 to 1587000 or about 7.4% [1]. I really did not expect the growth outlook for the industry to be so low. I doubt if there will be any shortage of global demand for new products and innovations, and these numbers seem to imply that the majority of growth in the engineering profession will be provided overseas. The implications for the U.S. are a bit disturbing in a global economy that is increasingly based on technology.

All of the projections do not take into account the emergence of new areas of engineering innovation such as genetic engineering and nanotechnology. I'm optimistic that growth in engineering in the U.S. will come from these and other technologies. The growth projections for other areas of engineering could be overly optimistic though, and a great deal of change appears to be in process for the profession. Many engineers may be left behind by these changes, but the changes provide great opportunities for those that take advantage. The key is to continue to learn new skills and knowledge and never be too complacent in your position.


[1] U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2004-2005. "Occupational Projections and Training Data, 2004-05 Edition, Chapter III Selected Occupational Data, 2002 and Projected 2012" [Internet, WWW, PDF]. Available: Available in .PDF format; Address: http://www.bls.gov/emp/optd/optd003.pdf. [Accessed: 14-September-2005].

[2] U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2004-2005. "Occupational Projections and Training Data, 2004-05 Edition, Chapter VI Education and Training Statistics" [Internet, WWW, PDF]. Available: Available in .PDF format; Address: http://www.bls.gov/emp/optd/optd006.pdf. [Accessed: 14-September-2005].