Institutional Responses to Labor Market Demands for Engineers

January 1, 2009

Conducted an overview of the graduation rates and college engineering program dynamics for engineering.

In 2009, the Heldrich Center conducted an overview of the graduation rates and college engineering program dynamics for engineering, including an analysis by discipline. The analysis provided background information on trends in the supply of new engineers to the labor market over the past three decades. It identified forces shaping the demand for engineers over the past three decades, including fluctuations in government demand, skill-biased technological change, the demand for engineers in non-engineering occupations (particularly management), and replacement demand. The discussion of the current demand for engineers provided a context for interpreting trends in the supply of new engineers from American colleges and universities, and the nature of adjustments in the supply of new engineers to changing demand conditions. A chapter entitled, “Engineering Labor Markets,” by Daniel Kuehn and Dr. Hal Salzman, appears in U.S. Engineering in the Global Economy, edited by Dr. Richard Freeman and Dr. Hal Salzman.

Work Category
Funded By
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the National Bureau of Economic Research


Status