Posted on 07/08/2009 9:20:44 AM PDT by Zathras
WASHINGTON — U.S. engineering unemployment soared to a record in the second quarter of 2009, nearly doubling on a quarterly basis to 8.6 percent, the IEEE-USA said Tuesday (July 7), citing government figures.
The previous quarterly record for joblessness among U.S. electrical and electronic engineers was 7 percent, reached in October 2003.
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| EE unemployment previously peaked in 2003. (Source: Ron Hira) |
I was on the other side of that fence and had to pull a req right when I had selected the perfect candidate and was making an offer.
Believe me, it’s difficult from the management side in that you feel like a real ass for wasting the interviewer’s time and getting their hopes up. I could have really used that new hire...
Yep. Many computer programmers are die hard liberals. They are getting what they asked for but are too stupid to know it. They are brain washed enough to say this is Bush’s fault. It wouldn’t matter if 100 years went by with Obama in office, they would still claim it to be Bush’s fault.
“I have NEVER seen it ANYWHERE as bad.”
In my area, Denver, 2001 was worse, far worse.
Hey! For guys that spent their Friday nights in the Science Library until closing time, we expect to have lower unemployment than the riff-raff!
Great!:(
My granddaughter just graduated w/ a mech. engineering degree.
She’s unemployed at the moment.
Actally, I've recently worked with numerous H1B's, and they're losing their jobs in droves as well.
The actual H1B workers are as abused as any by this system. I worked with one last year who was required to leave home on the East coast to LA for a week the very night that his wife had a miscarriage. She was forced to somehow carry on, with the twin fetuses still in her body, without even having him at home. Very sad and very inhumane.
Denver is NOT Silicon Valley
Respectfully, and politely....if companies don't want to spend the $$$ on American workers, and scrimp by hiring H1B's....
What makes you think that said companies will spend money to hire Americans if all of the H1B's just get sent home?
My bet - from past experience - is that they'd just eliminate the positions altogether. Maybe hire a couple of overworked entry level guys that are too dumb to know how bad they've got it.
I saw it first hand with outsourcing. Company outsourced the IT dept - everyone kept the same desk, just switched employers. The conditions sucked, so everyone left. Replacements were not brought in until things completely broke down, then the few that came in just got pummeled.
Then, I left too. Dunno how the story ended. :-)
I guess what I'm saying is that things can always be worse. :-) Now, if you'd like to dump H1B's during boom times, when companies are willing to spend some cash....I might get behind that.
I’m bracing for another round of lay-offs this quater too..... µ
Very misleading headline:
the 8.6% unemployment rate is for electrical engineers, not all engineers.
“...And still we import H1Bs ..”
that was my first thought - if all foreign engineers were sent home, what would the unemployment rate be??
Well, yeah -- the payback comes from a focus on "looking out for the share-holders." Lower costs and all that, and thus (supposedly) higher stock prices.
Their payback is in the form of higher bonuses and stock options.
There seems to be no room in such decisions for the longer-term considerations, such as what happens when the domestic manufacturing base goes away; and the "service economy" business model runs afoul of the fact that the hard capital needed to run it has moved overseas.
This is the sort of stuff Lenin was talking about when he said that capitalists would sell him the rope he used to hang them.
Yep, Denver 2001 was a bad one!
They don’t say what field of EE they’re talking about either -
I’m betting power is WAAAAAY down.
My brother is an ME, and says that all coal plant construction has been halted or cancelled.
Probably about the same. The H1B engineers mainly represent needed skills, rather than lower costs. My suspicion is that there is a shortage of Americans able to provide the same level of support.
If that's true, a lot of H1B slots would probably go unfilled, or be shipped overseas, rather than filled by American engineers who may not have the necessary qualifications.
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