NEW YORK — Driven by rising salaries and widely reported work force shortages, enrollment in freshman engineering programs at U.S. colleges and universities for next fall's school year has risen 5.6 percent from last year's levels, reversing a four-year decline.

Enrollment by all minority students increased 2.4 percent from 1996-97, reversing a similar four-year decline, according to preliminary figures from the National Action Council on Minorities in Engineering (NACME), but the increases were uneven for different minority groups.

Some 6.4 percent more Latinos and 11.9 percent more American Indians chose engineering as their major in 1997-98 than the year before. But enrollment among African-Americans slipped 1.2 percent from 7,482 in 1996-97 to 7,389 in 1997-98. In total, 88,913 first-year students signed up for engineering in 1997-98.

Total nonminority enrollment — which includes whites and Asians — was up 6.3 percent for the 1997-98 school year, to 75,040 students.

But the enrollment of 88,913 freshmen is considerably below historical levels. In 1982-83, 114,517 freshmen signed up for engineering coursework, leading to a record level of BS graduates four years later. In 1996-97, there were 64,032 BS graduates in engineering.