Hartford Business Journal

12 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | FEBRUARY 19, 2024 An engineering classroom at the University of St. Joseph in West Hartford. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED Building A Pipeline CT has an engineer shortage; some colleges are working to address the need go unfilled each year through at least 2030, according to the Boston Consulting Group. A shortage of engineers can stunt productivity and growth. The state Department of Transportation last July said it was short 200 to 300 engineers, out of the 1,200 to 1,300 it needs, which is slowing down the agency's ability to upgrade Connecticut's roads and bridges, the Connecticut Mirror reported. Some colleges are trying to address the issue. The University of St. Joseph in West Hartford is enrolling students for courses in a new engineering bach- elor's degree program that will debut in the fall. In November, the University of Connecticut elevated its school of engineering to a college as it has aggressively ramped-up recruitment and enrollment. UConn has invested significantly in its engineering program over the last decade, as part of a 10-year, $1.5 billion expansion plan — dubbed Next Generation Connecticut — that was approved by the state legis- lature in 2013 to develop UConn into a top research university and innovation hub. Engineers are in high demand due to the abundance and diver- sity of available jobs and high pay, according to Jerry Darling, Univer- sity of St. Joseph's founding program director of engineering science and a professor of physics and chemistry. Recent BLS data shows graduates working in engineering earn a median annual salary of $97,000. "Students know the advantage of a career in engineering, it's always in the top five" of preferred professions, and industry can't get enough engi- neers in all disciplines, Darling said. A growing field Engineering is a diverse field with many different focus areas, from mechanical and electrical to aero- space and bioscience. Each of those disciplines has experienced varying levels of growth or decline in Connecticut. Over a five-year period, from 2018 to 2022, Connecticut lost 9.9% of its electrical and 5.9% of its biomedical engineers, but saw 69% and 6% growth in electronics and mechan- ical engineers, respectively, BLS data shows. Kazem Kazerounian is the dean and a professor of mechanical engineering at UConn's College of Engineering. He said the tran- sition from a school to a college is recognition of the program's growth and demand. Engineering program enrollment at UConn's main Storrs campus has more than doubled since the fall of 2005. Including regional campuses, UConn has more than 3,600 under- graduate engineering students, Kazerounian said. There are also about 900 graduate engineering students, and hundreds of others enrolled in professional By Hanna Snyder Gambini hgambini@hartfordbusiness.com C onnecticut's manufacturing, technology, construction and bioscience sectors are facing a shortage of engineers. To try to meet that need, univer- sities are expanding programs to produce skilled graduates in a variety of engineering fields. Questions remain, however, if the state's colleges can produce engi- neering graduates fast enough to meet future demand. The state will also need to do a better job keeping those graduates here. Connecticut has a goal to increase manufacturing and engineering jobs by 4% annually over the next 10 years, said Paul Lavoie, Connecti- cut's chief manufacturing officer. To achieve that goal, the state would need to reverse what's been at least a decade of stagnation in engi- neering employment. Connecticut had 33,740 engineering and architec- tural jobs as of May 2022, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, down 4.26% from five years ago, and slightly above 2013 levels. The U.S. as a whole faces a similar problem. The country needs to produce about 400,000 new engineers annually to keep up with demand, and it's possible one in three U.S. engineering jobs will Engineering jobs that have shrunk in CT since 2018 TOTAL JOBS 2018 TOTAL JOBS 2022 % DECREASE Overall architecture and engineering jobs 34,960 33,470 -4.3% Electrical engineers 2,820 2,540 -9.9% Biomedical engineers 170 160 -5.9% Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

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