Has hiring returned to the electronics industry?
Samsung is adding 10,000 jobs. Texas Instruments is adding jobs in its home state. Digi-Key’s CEO recently said that the company is scrambling to hire people. And job posts to EDN’s Electronics Design Network on LinkedIn have increased significantly in the last few weeks, now spreading over two pages and including positions across the globe.
Has hiring returned to the electronics industry? It seems so, but don’t expect all those empty cubicles to fill overnight.
Dice.com, a career site for technology and engineering professionals, began reporting in December that the worst of the layoffs were behind tech and that hiring would increase in the first six months of 2010. Dice now shows more than 69,000 open tech professional positions (including engineering positions) as of early May. That number is up about 40% year over year.
This is great news, but is it enough for the electronics industry? More than 69,000 electronics industry job were lost in 2009. Further, looking specifically at the semiconductor industry, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has reported that only retail department stores will lose more jobs than the US chip industry over the next decade.
Consumer spending is also a factor to consider when looking at hiring rates. If consumers spend, in our case on electronics, demand goes up, production goes up, and, normally, hiring goes up. While consumer spending has improved, until unemployment is at a more reasonable level for the country overall, continued demand cannot be counted on. According to the latest data from the BLS, unemployment rates hovered near 10% for the month of April.
Note also that hiring “normally” goes up. Employers may not be so eager to hire new blood in this post-2009 world, where those fortunate enough not to have been laid off during the downturn now each do the work of three or four of their former co-workers. Why spend salary funds on additional employees when existing employees have proved they can do multiple jobs (albeit in 60-hour work weeks and at higher stress levels) for the same compensation? Perhaps even at less compensation. Pay cuts, benefit reductions, furloughs, as well as increased workloads have become commonplace.
Still, better employers will reach out for new talent as the year progresses, with 2010 forecasted to bring electronics demand up and unemployment rates down. And when companies like Samsung, TI, and Digi-Key, as well as some of the top-notch connections in EDN’s Electronics Design Network LinkedIn group, see hiring, it’s out there.
Are you employed or looking? Are you employed and still looking? Has hiring returned? Share your thoughts in the comment field below.
savroD commented:
Good comments here all around. American business and our government are going to reap what they have sown. A system that rewards superstition and foolish political ideological economics over creativity, risk-taking and science!
TT commented:
Since the year 2000 many Engineers just quit the profession. I know many that have just moved on to better fields. I have been in the Power Electronics industry for about 15 yrs and have no interest in Electronics anymore. I used to love this stuff. The industry has just changed too much, and for the worse.
Mike Aubrecht commented:
I'm a recruiter who specializes in EE's in the battery and power industry. I am incredibly busy searching for EE's w/ design experience but I've never had so much trouble finding qualified candidates and I've done this for over 20 years. Where are all the good EE's that need work? Contact me at mikeaubrecht@gmail.com
Frank S commented:
Unemployed Geezer got it right. Time will tell in these endeavors if existing senior management continue to play this game. Yes they will loose in the long run valuable people that they should be retaining for future business and not just focus on the quarterly numbers.
Unemployed Geezer commented:
Funny how that 69,000 jobs lost number for 2009 is identical to the number of H1B visas issued, isn't it? Real funny. To protect the domestic economy, instead of sending the money overseas, the cap should have been set to ZERO that year.
It's also "funny" how the majority of the jobs lost were people aged 40 and up, even though age discrimination laws exist, most were baited with "early retirement" and large severances (shut up money).
Most of the jobs being posted now are for inexperienced workers as CFOs try to continue to squeeze expenses, not realizing the significant dent in top line they are going to have in a couple of years as a result of their myopia.
And so the "cycle" of American stupidity and greed goes.
Funny.
frustrated commented:
I sure hope hiring has returned. component lead times have skyrocketed, and I can not get parts fast enough to keep up with demand.
JB commented:
New York is a job wasteland for Electronics. Still looking after my former employer went bankrupt.
