Electrical engineering

Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline that deals with the study and application of electricity and electromagnetism. Its practitioners are called electrical engineers. Electrical engineering is a broad field that encompasses many subfields including those that deal with power, control systems, electronics and telecommunications.

Demographics

There are around 366,000 people working as electrical engineers in the United States constituting 0.25% of the labour force (2002). This makes electrical engineering the largest engineering discipline in the United States with the exception of software engineering. {{ref|DoL3}} In Australia, there are around 24,000 constituting 0.23% of the labour force (2005) and in Canada, there are around 34,600 constituting 0.21% of the labour force (2001). {{ref|AJS}} {{ref|JobFutures.ca}} All of these countries expect employment in the field to grow, but not rapidly, in the near future.

Related Topics:
United States - 2002 - Australia - 2005 - Canada - 2001

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Outside of these countries, it is difficult to guage the demographics of the profession due to less meticulous reporting on labour statistics. One way to estimate the relative size of the profession in each country is to compare graduation statistics. In 2002, the National Science Foundation published statistics on the number of degrees granted in engineering by various countries. A summary of these statistics is shown on the right though the foundation notes that the numbers "may not be strictly comparable". {{ref|NSF-foreign}}

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In the United States and, to a lesser extent, throughout the western world there is a perception that a large number of technical jobs including those concerned with electrical engineering are being outsourced to countries such as India and China. To illustrate this claim statistics are often misrepresented (see note). Overall probably one of the best summaries of the effect of outsourcing on the United States is given by the U.S. Department of Labor which notes that "increasing use of engineering services performed in other countries will act to limit employment growth" but that overall the profession "is expected to grow more slowly than the average for all occupations through 2012". {{ref|DoL5}}

Related Topics:
Western world - Outsourced - India - China - Note - U.S. Department of Labor

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Other statements on the profession are less controversial. In the United States, the number of electrical engineers graduating has fallen from a peak in the mid-1980's. {{ref|NSF-elec}} In 2000, engineering degrees formed less than 20% of the degrees granted in the United States and Australia, compared to just over 25% for the United Kingdom and Japan and over 30% for Germany and South Korea. {{ref|DEST}} Also widely accepted is that the profession is male dominated. This is illustrated by the statistical sources in the first paragraph that show 96% of electrical engineers in Australia and 89% of electrical engineers in Canada are male.

Related Topics:
2000 - United Kingdom - Japan - Germany - South Korea

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