Overall, 57 percent of companies responding to the survey said this type of delay occurred in the past 12 months. While the military and aerospace sector had 72 percent of respondents claiming they had encountered the problem, the communications equipment industry was also heavily affected, with 65 percent raising it as a major issue.

A closely related concern was the skills shortage in the industry, with software engineers being singled out as the most sought after, accounting for 30.6 percent, followed by hardware engineers at 26.7 percent. Another shortage was evident in qualified graduates and skilled professionals entering the industry, at 19 percent.

The poor image of engineering as a profession was a dominant reason engineers gave as to why there is a lack of skilled employees and new industry entrants. Many engineers said the profession should be marketed more effectively in order to prevent it from being undervalued.

"Though IT appears to be the 'in thing,' young people are just not attracted to the industry," a director in military and aerospace said.

It was strongly believed that the title 'engineer' was unattractive. "It is too general to be attractive. Mechanics who repair cars are engineers. Telephone engineers/gas fitters are called engineers. What's the world coming to?" a components and subassemblies product manager remarked.

Others agree that the name should be changed. "As the bible says with poetic license: If the title 'engineer' offends; use a different one," a software engineer commented.

Ageism, or age discrimination, came under the spotlight along with the industry's failure to re-train experienced staff. Respondents believed that the industry was moving so fast that skills, not just products, were becoming obsolete-and that the industry fails to value the experienced professionals it currently has.

And, as tactfully put by a senior engineer: "Ageism and lack of will to retrain older engineers means that we ignore a lot of highly experienced and capable people whilst searching vainly for the youthful 'pot of gold.' "

On the subject of age discrimination, 70 percent of those over 50 were concerned. In contrast, it worried only 19 percent of those under 35.

Age discrimination at work
In the United States, age discrimination was a real concern for 65 percent of those over 50, yet only 25 percent under 35-figures not that much different from those in Britain.

More workers from the military and aerospace sector were concerned about technical obsolescence than in any other industry sector: 68 percent. That's noticeably higher than the industry total of 59 percent. This reflected the military and aerospace sector's previously noted shortage of professional staff. However, respondents were not prepared to label themselves or their workmates "obsolete"-58 percent of those surveyed claimed their skills were up to date.

The military and aerospace sector also has more problems with money than other areas, according to the survey. In that sector, 85 percent were concerned about salaries in contrast with 75 percent of the total survey. Also, more staff (78.2 percent) were concerned, compared with 66 percent for managers. The market least concerned was the control, test and measurement sector at 71 percent. In addition, 70 percent of all respondents were concerned about pensions.

A large number of staff, 64 percent, was concerned about the job market, job security and unemployment, much greater than the 49 percent for management. In addition, 72 percent of employees thought that not only were they not receiving enough money, but they also didn't have enough time to spend it.

This tied up nicely with the staggering 72 percent of workers who expressed serious concerns about their work/life balance. The majority of those were from the computer industry, at 83 percent. So while the U.K. electronics industry sees a rise in salary, there seems to be no decline in the number of issues that still need to be tackled.