Demand for Workforce
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The United States has a growing concern about the supply of engineers, as there has been a noticeable decline in student interest in careers in science and engineering over the past two decades. The number of undergraduate students earning engineering degrees has dropped from 85,000 per year in 1985 to 74,186 recently. This is a cause for concern as undergraduate enrollments levels have begun to decline and only 55% of students who enter engineering programs eventually complete their degrees. |
A report by the United States Power and Energy Engineering Workforce Collaborative estimates that there are about 800 to 1,000 undergraduate students graduating each year with an interest in electric power engineering jobs, and that the U.S. enrollment for masters and doctoral degree students in power engineering is approximately 550. Approximately 60% of graduate students are international students who may not seek employment in the United States. Electric utilities are predicted to require an estimated 7,000 new hires in power engineering over the next five years. After factoring in the workforce needs of other industries, the power engineering workforce requirement could easily be doubled to 14,000 over the same time frame.
Recruiting, training and hiring new engineers is complicated by the fact that over the next five years, approximately 45% of engineers in electric utilities will be eligible for retirement. That means that if those engineers must be replaced, there would be a need for more than 7,000 power engineers by electric utilities alone, with two or three times more power engineers that may be needed to satisfy the needs of the entire growing market. Additional faculty will be needed to increase the number of power engineering students to meet the demand for new engineers in the workplace.
These shortages can be addressed only through an increased commitment to an intensive, sophisticated workforce development initiative.