Black
Engineers Ask: 'What Happened To The Stability?'
If the demand for engineers is as great as U.S. employers
say it is, then why are some American engineers finding it
hard to get a job?
Alexandria, VA (BlackNews.com) - In its November/December
2005 Fall Recruitment Edition, NSBE Magazine talks with top
employers, industry researchers and working and unemployed
engineers, in search of answers to this question, in an exclusive
investigative report titled Who Needs Black Engineers?
NSBE Magazine has been published since 1986 by the National
Society of Black Engineers.
"This article raises important issues about the adequacy
of our technical work force data for policy decisions," says
Debra S. Knopman, vice president and director of Infrastructure,
Safety, and Environment of the RAND Corporation, one of the
sources cited in the article by NSBE Magazine. "As the RAND
report* highlights, these issues include the need for current
data on: job market conditions in various occupational categories,
disciplines, and career stages; the movement from academe
to industry, which hires almost 40 percent of the U.S. scientific,
technical, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) doctoral graduates;
the nature of STEM career paths; and the size and characteristics
of the global STEM work force."
IEEE-USA's
Employment & Career Services Committee chair, Jean Eason,
says, "I recognize the need to address the serious concerns
raised in this article about high-tech unemployment.
Economic globalization, employers' reliance on part-time
and temporary workers including temporary foreign workers
as well as outsourcing and offshoring, have hit engineers
hard, most especially minorities."
"IEEE-USA
advocates retraining of displaced engineers, improving
K12 math and science education, and enacting immigration
reforms that make good-faith efforts to fill positions
with U.S. citizens first, including women and minorities,"
Eason adds. "The engineering profession must make more
effective use of the knowledge, skills and abilities
of talented human resources, regardless of race, sex
or age."
"Engineering
is a great profession that needs more black participants,"
says Eric Addison, editor of NSBE Magazine and author
of the report. "But in promoting the benefits of this
field for our young people, we also need to make them
aware of the extent of the challenges they'll be facing."
"This
article is about beginning to bridge the 'Reality Gap,'"
Addison continues, "by telling our readers what's really
going on in the American workplace."
Who
Needs Black Engineers? has executives of some of
the world's largest companies IBM Corporation, Microsoft
Corporation, General Electric Company and Exxon Mobil
Corporation on the record answering the hard questions,
such as, "Is the engineer shortage real?" It examines
whether the business case for diversity is being undercut
by increased global competition. And it gets honest
talk from some black engineers who say they are suffering
in the job market, and some who say they are not.
NSBE's 2005 Fall Recruitment Edition also presents the
National Society of Black Engineers' 17th annual "Employer
Preference Survey," headlined by the "NSBE 50," the
companies and government agencies most preferred by
NSBE's membership.
"This
edition of NSBE Magazine is a watershed," says NSBE
Executive Director Carl B. Mack. "As the employment
picture for our members becomes more challenging, NSBE
will be stepping up its game to support their interests,
through harder-hitting journalism, strategic alliances
and other creative means."
The National Society of Black Engineers is one of the
largest student-managed organizations in the world,
with 15,000 members, more than 300 chapters on college
and university campuses and more than 80 Alumni Extension
chapters and interest groups in the U.S. and abroad.
For more information about NSBE, NSBE Magazine or Who
Needs Black Engineers?, contact Eric Addison by
e-mail at eaddison@nsbe.org or by phone at (703) 549-2207,
ext. 209.
* Terrence K. Kelly, William P. Butz, Stephen Carroll,
David M. Adamson, and Gabrielle Bloom (eds.), The U.S.
Scientific and Technical Workforce: Improving Data for
Decisionmaking," Conference Proceedings, CF-194-OSTP/SF,
RAND Corporation, 2004.
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