Engineering Technology Education in the United States (2017) / Chapter Skim
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4 The Employment of Engineering Technology Talent
4 The Employment of Engineering Technology Talent
Pages 103-154
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From page 103... ...
The March CPS provides data on this workforce going back to the early 1970s (the occupational categories of earlier versions of the CPS do not sufficiently match later categories to ensure that the identification of engineering technicians and technologists is reliable)
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From page 104... ...
The SOC system does not distinguish between the job duties of engineering technicians and technologists; instead, it lumps them together under a category called "Engineering Technicians, Except Drafters,"1 which includes eight detailed occupations (Table 4-2)
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From page 105... ...
(The latter informa TABLE 4-2 Engineering Technology Subfield Estimates, OES, 2013 Population Estimates Aerospace engineering and operations technicians & technologists 10,540 Civil engineering technicians & technologists 69,830 Electrical and electronics engineering technicians & technologists 141,150 Electro-mechanical technicians & technologists 15,540 Environmental engineering technicians & technologists 18,020 Industrial engineering technicians & technologists 68,520 Mechanical engineering technicians & technologists 46,090 Engineering technicians & technologists, except drafters, all others 65,960 Total 435,650 SOURCE: 2013 OES.
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From page 106... ...
One possible explanation for this discrepancy is that those coding occupations for the NSF include a large number of engineers and perhaps other types of technicians into the "engineering technician" category -- people who the Census Bureau would not have identified as engineering technicians. Of the various federal datasets, only OES provides employment estimates of distinct subfields within ET (Table 4-2)
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From page 107... ...
Under the new occupational definitions, approximately 2,000,000 engineers and 379,000 engineering technicians and technologists were employed in 2015. The federal surveys peg the average engineering technician and technologist annual earnings at between $48,000 and $57,000 (2015 dollars)
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From page 108... ...
Engineering technicians $45,785 $53,227 -- -- Engineering technologists $57,496 $57,757 $80,670 -- Engineers $86,792 $101,967 $94,933 $94,013 SOURCE: Calculations from noted datasets. Engineers on average earn considerably more than both in all surveys.
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From page 109... ...
incomes for technicians and technologists separately for the 4 decades between 1974 and 2015. Figure 4-2 and Table 4-3 suggest that technicians and technologist have comparable earnings, so it is $100,000 $90,000 $80,000 $70,000 $60,000 $50,000 $40,000 $30,000 $20,000 $10,000 $0 Engineering Technicians Engineering Technologists Engineers FIGURE 4-2 Annual earnings (2015 dollars)
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From page 110... ...
Figure 4-3 2004-2015 1994-2003 1984-1993 1974-1983 0 20000 40000 60000 80000 100000 Annual Income, 2015 dollars FIGURE 4-4 FIGURE 4-4 Income distribution for engineering technologists for the period 1974-2015 (2015 dollars)
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From page 111... ...
The issue of shortages is discussed later in this chapter. Unlike the relative stability of real annual income, data from the CPS indicate that the average age of engineering technicians and engineering technologists has shifted dramatically over the past 40 years (Figure 4-5)
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From page 112... ...
FIGURE 4-5 1974-1983 1984-1993 1994-2003 2004-2015 20 40 60 80 100 Age FIGURE 4-6 Age distribution of engineering technicians and technologists. SOURCE: FIGURE 4-6 Calculations from the 1974-2015 March CPS.
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From page 113... ...
27 Frequency in 10,000s 18 1974-1983 1984-1993 1994-2003 2004-2013 9 0 20 40 60 80 Age FIGURE 4-8 Age frequencies of engineering technicians and technologists. SOURCE: Calculations from the 1974-2013 March CPS.
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From page 114... ...
The engineering workforce also has exhibited persistent aging over this period, although the trends are not as stark as in the engineering technician and technologist workforce. In the 2004–2013 period, the distribution of engineers across the age range is relatively uniform, whereas engineering technicians and technologists tend to be older.
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From page 115... ...
Even so, younger workers are still not entering the field at rates comparable to older cohorts, driving the age distribution to the right. The increasing average age of engineering technicians and technologists raises questions about the need for increased production of these workers to replace aging workers.
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From page 116... ...
But, typically, an aging workforce does not seem to be a portent of strong future demand for young workers, and it is certainly not a reason in and of itself to expect growing demand. WORK ROLES, SKILLS, AND JOB PERFORMANCE As noted earlier, the federal government, through the system of SOC codes, has described the work done by engineering technicians and technologists, mainly for the purposes of interpreting data from employment surveys.
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From page 117... ...
Employers indicated that the work of engineering technicians centers on testing and maintaining equipment; troubleshooting and repairing; and conducting quality control checks. The committee survey, conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE)
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From page 118... ...
. The committee's two surveys also probed perceptions about the differences in work performed by engineers and engineering technologists.
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From page 119... ...
said there was no difference in roles and responsibilities assigned based on degree. A similar percentage of respondents indicated they saw no significant differences in the capabilities of engineering and ET degree holders when performing similar roles.
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From page 120... ...
Engineering technology graduates perform better when doing 18.0 applied work, while engineering graduates perform better in doing engineering design. Engineering technology and engineering graduates are essentially the 8.1 same in terms of work performance.
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From page 121... ...
Engineering technology graduates are better prepared to do applied 19.6 work, while engineering graduates are better prepared to do engineering design. Engineering technology and engineering graduates are essentially the 5.9 same.
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From page 122... ...
Based on what the committee has learned throughout this project, there may be some confusion on the part of survey respondents about what it means to be an "engineering technologist," and this may introduce even more uncertainty in the B&B results. In addition to the 29 percent of the sample employed as engineers who may be doing work comparable to engineering technologists, other technical workers may be doing work that is similar to ET but assigned to other occupational sectors.
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From page 123... ...
903 5.96 Computer/information systems occupations 867 5.73 Construction/mining occupations 17 0.11 Engineering technicians ("technologists") 222 1.47 Engineers 4,465 29.49 Fitters, tradesmen, and mechanics 331 2.19 Food service occupations 122 0.81 Healthcare professionals (non-nurses)
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From page 124... ...
TABLE 4-12 Field of Degree of Engineering Technologists ACS NSCG Architecture 0.84% 1.31% Arts and humanities 11.09% 7.23% Business/management 16.16% 11.01% Computer science/information technology 4.76% 5.57% Education 4.18% 0.91% Engineering technology 4.98% 11.68% Engineering 23.00% 38.72% Health 1.57% 0.60% Life sciences 15.87% 3.65% Mathematics 0.99% 2.19% Other professional fields 6.02% 3.90% Physical sciences 7.78% 5.78% Social sciences 2.76% 7.46% STEM (includes health) 58.95% 70.09% Non-STEM 41.05% 29.90% SOURCE: Calculations from the 2013 ACS and the 2013 NSCG.
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From page 125... ...
The fluid identity and work of engineering technicians and technologists opens a wide number of potential career pathways that need to be assessed in the data. 4 NSCG uses different occupational categories from those used by other labor market sur veys, although most (including all engineers, engineering technologists, and computer and IT occupations)
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From page 126... ...
The career pathways of ET bachelor's degree holders share many important characteristics that we typically expect to see for engineers. Between the ages of 25 and 34, 39 percent of these ET graduates work as engineers or engineering technologists.
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From page 127... ...
Tables 4-10 through 4-13 and Figure 4-10 raise concerns that confusion about occupational categories may be hampering our understanding of how ET graduates connect to the labor market. An alternative to expecting respondents to reliably report whether they are working as engineering technologists, engineers, or in some other job is simply to ask them whether their ET degree is related to their current employment.
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From page 128... ...
In attempting to reconcile the data in Table 4-14 with those from Tables 4-10 through 4-13 and Figure 4-10, we arrive at a seemingly contradictory conclusion: ET graduates report that their jobs are highly related to their degree even if the information they supply on employment surveys does not classify them as engineering technologists. However, it need not be contradictory.
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From page 129... ...
Studies of the labor market for scientists and engineers seem to confirm this intuition with evidence that these skilled workers are responsive to wage signals (sometimes with a lag, because it takes time to earn a degree) , and they adjust their entry into specific STEM fields based on relative job
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From page 130... ...
Dynamic labor shortages may be more plausible in the market for engineering technicians and technologists than in other STEM fields. Many of these workers, particularly at the technician level, are educated at community colleges and therefore may be more tied to their communities than other workers are.
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From page 131... ...
Different industries and regions of the country naturally have different wage structures, so pinpointing regions that are exhibiting higher-than-usual engineering technician and technologist wages will be a misleading indicator of labor market shortage. It is likely that engineering technicians in Brooklyn, New York, might earn more than technicians in Bismarck, North Dakota, earn because of a higher cost of living, but North Dakota is more likely to
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From page 132... ...
Six detailed categories were considered for each state: aerospace, civil, electrical and electronic, environmental, industrial, and mechanical engineers and engineering technicians and technologists. Because we expect engineers to earn more than technicians and technologists do, a small earnings differential for a given subfield in a state is indicative of high engineering technician and technologist earnings relative to engineers.
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From page 133... ...
, employment growth over the next decade increases. This would be the case if, for example, demand for engineering technicians and technologists increased over this period.
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From page 134... ...
Two potential narratives are suggested by Figure 4-14. First, we could conclude that in the engineering technician and technologists labor market, supply and demand have kept pace with each other, resulting in stable growth in the workforce without strong real income growth or shortage problems.
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From page 135... ...
Industrial engineering technicians, electrical and electronics engineering technicians, and "other" miscellaneous engineering technicians are projected to have declining rates of employment over this period. With the exception 7 For example, state licensing information is collected at the Career One Stop website by the US Department of Labor, and notifications about Workforce Investment Board activities and programs are publicly available.
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From page 136... ...
2014-2024 (thousands) Total, all occupations 150,540 160,329 6.5% 46,507 Aerospace engineering 11.4 11.8 3.6% 3.2 and operations technicians Civil engineering 74.0 77.6 4.8% 21.6 technicians Electrical and electronics 139.4 136.6 –2.0% 34.1 engineering technicians Electro-mechanical 14.7 14.8 0.7% 3.7 technicians Engineering technicians, 70.1 69.9 –0.2% 17.1 except drafters, all other Environmental 18.6 20.4 10% 6.4 engineering technicians Industrial engineering 66.5 63.5 –4.5% 16.3 technicians Mechanical engineering 48.4 49.3 2.0% 12.8 technicians of environmental engineering technicians, there is no evidence in the BLS projections of strong impending demand growth that might result in future shortages.
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From page 137... ...
OP-TEC, the National Center for Optics and Photonics Education funded by the National Science Foundation, has surveyed employers of photonics technicians, who may have a 2-year degree in photonics or in electronics with a photonics specialty, to assess the demand for such workers in the United States.8 Based on extrapolation from the responses of 333 employers, OP-TEC (2012) estimated that the industry needs to hire 1,600 new photonics technicians per year, while it asserts the education system is able to produce only about 300 degreed photonics technicians annually.
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From page 138... ...
We asked employers to look beyond the current situation and say whether they foresaw future shortages of workers with 2- or 4-year ET degrees. Employers who hire those with 2-year degrees were evenly split, at 40 percent each, on whether there would or would not be a future shortage (Table 4-19)
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From page 139... ...
notes that findings of job market polarization are sensitive to how skill levels are defined. This may be particularly relevant for engineering technicians and technologists, who may be seen as straddling the boundary between high- and middle-skill workers.
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From page 140... ...
. i FIGURE 4-15 TABLE 4-21 Educators' Views on How Much the Integration of New Technologies Is Affecting Skill Requirements for 2- and 4-Year ET students, by Percent 2-Year ET 4-Year ET Students (N=86)
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From page 141... ...
hired workers with associate's degrees. The screening question also asked whether respondents hired employees with 4-year engineering degrees, and 244, or greater than 99 percent, indicated they did.
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From page 142... ...
142 ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES Respondents who indicated they hired no employees with either engineering or ET degrees or who indicated they hired those with engineering degrees but not those with ET degrees were diverted to items near the end of the survey that did not require specific knowledge of ET. Demographically, respondents represented a fairly broad range of employer types and employer locations.
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From page 143... ...
Support Services 2 0.8 Motor Vehicle Mfg. 8 3.1 Oil & Gas Extraction 12 4.7 Recreation & Hospitality 5 2.0 Retail Trade 2 0.8 Social Services 1 0.4 Transportation 7 2.8 Utilities 11 4.3 Wholesale Trade 10 3.9 Total 254 100.0 a"Professional services" predominantly consists of engineering services firms.
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From page 144... ...
144 ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES APPENDIX 4B NAE Survey Instrument for Employers of Engineering Technology Graduates On behalf of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) , the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE)
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From page 145... ...
THE EMPLOYMENT OF ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY TALENT 145 c. Manufacturing (includes manufacturing related to food, textiles, apparel, wood, paper, printing, petroleum, chemicals, plastics, nonmetallic minerals, metal, machinery, computers and elec tronics, transportation, furniture)
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9. Which of the following job roles would typically be assigned to an employee with 4-year engineering technology degree?
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From page 147... ...
Conducting experiments e. Conducting quality control checks f.
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From page 148... ...
b. Engineering technology graduates perform better when doing applied work, while engineering graduates perform better in doing engineering design.
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As you consider your strategic needs for the future, do you anticipate that the supply of skilled workers with 2-year (AS or AAS) engineering technology degrees will be sufficient?
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From page 150... ...
As you consider your strategic needs for the future, do you anticipate that the supply of skilled workers with 4-year engineering technology degrees will be sufficient?
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From page 151... ...
Relationships with career services personnel e. State or national skills standards f.
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From page 152... ...
2016. "Dynamics of Engineering Labor Markets: Pe troleum Engineering and Responsive Supply." In The U.S.
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From page 153... ...
2013. Guestworkers in the High-Skill US Labor Market.
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