The unemployment rate for engineering and computer occupations is rising faster than for other professionals, according to the IEEE, which says first quarter labor statistics reveal a significant increase in the jobless rates among engineers.
According to a press release from the IEEE, the unemployment rate for all engineers jumped from 2.9 percent to 3.9 percent from the last quarter of 2008 to the first quarter this year. The IEEE says the numbers grew faster when compared with the increase in unemployment from quarter to quarter for all professional workers—from three percent to 3.7 percent—over the same timeframe. And perhaps even more worrisome, the IEEE says, is the increase of the unemployment rate from 1.2 percent overall in 2007 to nearly four percent now.
Unemployment Rate for Engineers Spikes CIO.com
Government labor reports released this year, including the most recent one, present a tableau of shrinking opportunities in high-skill fields.
Job growth in fields like computer systems design and Internet publishing has been slow in the last year. Employment in areas like data processing and software publishing has actually fallen. Additionally, computer scientists, systems analysts and computer programmers all had unemployment rates of around 6 percent in the second quarter of this year.
While that might sound like a blessing compared with the rampant joblessness in manufacturing, it is still significantly higher than the unemployment rates in other white-collar professions.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/business/economy/07jobs.html