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Projecting a shortage, engineers step up recruiting efforts

Engineers, needed to rebuild the nation’s roads, bridges and sewers, could be hard to find unless more students start going into the field.

Concerns about an engineer shortage exist, even though the American Society for Engineering Education’s annual survey of more than 300 colleges shows that the number of degrees awarded has risen slightly every year since 1999. More than 74,000 graduates earned bachelor’s degrees in engineering last year, the ASEE reported.

But that may not be enough.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2006-07 Occupational Outlook Handbook, “general population growth and an increased emphasis on infrastructure security means more civil engineers will be needed to design and construct safe and higher-capacity transportation, water supply and pollution control systems, as well as large buildings and building complexes.”

The Bureau predicts average growth for civil engineers — an increase of 9 percent-17 percent — through 2014.

David Mongan, president-elect for the American Society of Civil Engineers, said the industry could use an additional 10 percent-15 percent of graduates in the next decade to fill a need that is expected to grow as the nation’s infrastructure ages and more people move to coastal areas.

“We simply don’t have enough trained civil engineers to do the work that’s demanded today,” Mongan said.

Engineering firms are pouring their time, energy and money into selling the profession to schoolchildren, beginning in kindergarten.

Some firms are reaching into colleges and offering top students full scholarships to work for them after graduation, Mongan said.

Programs aimed at women and minorities continue to pop up, too. Even Curious George has joined the effort, appearing in an engineering teaching guide for kids titled “Under Construction,” Mongan said.

“There’s real concern about ensuring the long-term flow of students into the pipeline,” said Michael Gibbons, director of data research for the ASEE. “I don’t think that need would be perceived if the industry in general was having a very easy time hiring people.”

The American Society of Civil Engineers is urging Congress to spend $1.6 trillion over five years on infrastructure in the aftermath of the deadly collapse of an Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis this summer.

“If you look at the resourcing of engineers vs. the amount of work that’s got to be done in a period of time, you’ll find there is not enough people to do it,” said Fred Craig, who is overseeing a bridge replacement project in Cincinnati.

Educators say students tend to gravitate toward flashier degrees made popular by television shows such as “ER” and “CSI.”

“We joke that we need Brad Pitt to play an engineer,” said Osama Ettouney, chairman of the mechanical and manufacturing engineering program at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Some are less concerned.

Doug Braddock, an economist with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, says that in the 30 years he has studied engineers, they have consistently expressed concerns about not having enough employees to meet the demand.

“It’s nothing new,” Braddock said. “There’s always been concerns of a shortage of engineers, going way back to Sputnik.”

AVERAGE PAY

Average annual salaries for selected types of engineering fields:

• Petroleum: $101,620.

• Aerospace: $89,260.

• Chemical: $81,600.

• Electrical: $78,900.

• Mechanical: $72,580.

• Civil: $72,120.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics