Facts About
Modern Manufacturing
The U.S. Lags Significantly in Graduating Engineers
The U.S. has a challenge with its engineering workforce. The latest data show that engineering degrees as a share of total first university degrees were a meager 4.5%. While the industry-led growth of developing economies such as China and Korea would naturally give rise to a higher share of engineering graduates than in the U.S. and other rich nations, the U.S. share is markedly behind Japan at 16.6% and Germany at 13.3%.
Even Canada and the UK, whose manufacturing sectors confront significant competitive challenges, have greater shares of first university degrees in engineering than the United States. The U.S. must bridge this gap or risk declining competitiveness in both disruptive and incremental product innovation.