Lots of truth here! When I graduated as a E.E. in 1987 engineering
was a respectable profession. Now we are just an expense item that
needs to be reduced by off-shoring to India and China. The current
crop of CEOs are mostly MBAs without a clue as to where all the
product they are currently selling came from... or maybe they just
don't care. If I were entering college right now, I don't think that
I would want to go through the expense and hard work of an engineering
curriculum with such an uncertain return on investment waiting for me
in corporate America. That's why American students are staying away
from engineering right now...

Supply and demand rules.

When I was growing up in the 1960s and 70s, engineering ruled. My Dad, a
career manager with a herd of engineers working for him, urged me to get an
engineering degree. In his mind, it was the Holy Grail that would ensure
his son's future, as the pay was extremely high, and the hours were
certainly good.

Instead, much to his dismay, I obtained an English degree. :-)

It appears that a lot of my peers listened to their fathers, and went the
engineering route. The pay was (and still, in some industries, is)
extremely high, and the hours are still good -- but as the supply of
engineers increased, the demand for them decreased.

Any good CEO is ALWAYS looking for areas to cut costs, and salaries are
usually the biggest item on the balance sheet. If a company can get the
same work for less pay, they would be stupid not to.

That's the free market. It sucks, sometimes.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"