Despite the negative economic reports from the last 2 months, the demand for traditional engineering talents – mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, and manufacturing engineer – are still high.
With inflation currently at 9.1% within the past 12 months and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at -1.6%, companies may be gearing for a lean season, which in turn may lead to headcount reductions. However, hiring for key R&D and manufacturing engineers remains elevated.
What we’re seeing:
- The State of California – which is a big hub for innovative research and development – is still projecting that Mechanical, Electrical, and Manufacturing Engineering hiring to go up by 5.7% within the next 2 years.
- The current year-by-year wage growth rate is at 5% across all sectors and occupations, setting a historical record, which shows that we are still in a highly competitive job market.
(Image Credit: BLS.gov)
- Job Openings for the manufacturing industry did see a slight dip in May 2022 compared to the previous month but are still at record-setting levels at 805,000 nationally. Regionally for engineers in major California metropolitans, the number of job openings is still high. The Silicon Valley area has over 13,700 job openings while Orange County has over 9,000 within the past week.
- Specific industries such as Electric Vehicles, Semiconductor Equipment, Aerospace and Defense, and Life Science Instrumentation are still projecting high growth for the next 5 years. These industries will continue to hire engineers for the foreseeable future.
- Due to international work stoppages and supply chain roadblocks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the “reshoring” of manufacturing plants in the U.S. has increased by 116%within the past year which will create demand for more R&D and manufacturing workers.
The negative labor market news we’re currently hearing about is mostly from companies outside the traditional Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) markets:
- Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, went on a hiring freeze for their hardware Reality Labs division.
- Electric car maker Tesla has made headlines for laying off hundreds of workers in 2022, but the layoffs were mostly isolated within their human resources, autopilot operators, and non-engineering and manufacturing divisions.
- Other tech companies that declared they will be slowing down their pace in hiring include Google, Apple, and Amazon due to anticipated decreases in consumer spending.
At SoloPoint Solutions, we are not experiencing a slow down in hiring for key mechanical, electrical, and manufacturing engineering positions. We are steadily filling critical engineering roles for clients within the Bay Area and Orange County. If your company is looking to fill key engineering positions, start a conversation with one of our staffing experts today: