What a difference a decade makes. Going into the '90s, life was good, jobs were plentiful and careers were safe. Engineers could hardly conceive of being the subject of layoffs.

But with the Berlin Wall down, the Soviet Union dissolved and its military threat blunted, U.S. defense budgets were cut. Aerospace and defense companies started laying off and engineers suddenly found they were no longer invulnerable to downsizing. Ultimately, unemployment among engineers reached as high as 6 percent in 1993-94 and for the first time in a while survey respondents were looking over their shoulders.

• Motorola Inc. said in mid-October that it would cut 7,000 jobs, including engineers.
  
• Boeing announced 30,000 layoffs in the wake of an airline slump.
  
• Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago outplacement firm, estimated 90,000 dot-com employees had lost their jobs in the past year.
  
• Communications engineering, the spark plug of the electronics industry throughout the 1990s and especially during the last recession, is mired in an inventory overload and shows no signs of recovering soon.
  
• The national unemployment rate shot up to 4.9 percent in August, a four-year high and a full percentage point higher than in 2000.

Writes one California engineer, the economy "seems to be getting worse. Confidence in general is decreasing."

A test engineer in the consumer electronics business describes the economy as a "roller coaster from hell."

"Grim and getting worse," was how a chief engineer describes the situation at his company.

"Our company is going through a major downturn in business, with layoffs and wage freezing," said a project engineer with a medical electronics firm.

"I'm keeping my resume current," an engineering services manager said. "Web searching, local openings."

A Midwest project engineer describes a prevalent view of layoffs this way. "The current situation at my company requires that I be prepared for the possibility at any time. We've been through a half-dozen downsizings in the last five years. I see no indication that this will change."

Another respondent notes: "This would be the third time in 14 years that I experienced a work force reduction in this corporation. Just prepare as best as you can."

For nervous EEs, that's good advice. Career counselors emphasize preparation and advise professionals to build up their savings, hold off purchases of big-ticket items and scroll the ads and Web sites for clues to industries that might hire even as others cut back.

Indeed, our latest survey, taken this past summer, mirrors the realities of the marketplace. Engineers working in the depressed communications engineering field are sweating bullets. Nearly half (48 percent) of the communications people feel less secure in their jobs than a year ago vs. 39 percent for the entire sample. Engineers in components (47 percent) and computers (46 percent) trail close behind, also reflecting industries undergoing severe retrenchments. And here's a revealing statistic: Younger engineers-those under 35-who likely dodged the last national rounds of downsizing, are shakier about their prospects (41 percent are less secure) than our respondents over 50 (35 percent).

"It is the first time in my career that the possibility is around the corner," writes a design engineer in his 20s. "I am somewhat concerned."

Still, not everyone is nervous. Almost 13 percent of the readers see no threat at all, citing their skill sets. From New York comes this: "I'm not concerned; we are shorthanded in engineers with software skills."

"Layoffs (called 'redeployment') are all around," admits the department head of a components house, "but silicon designers, particularly those who can do transistor-level work, are in high demand."

"As a recent college graduate, I am protected from layoffs for 12 months, so I am not concerned now," a Silicon Valley test engineer said. Not only does he have his contractual guarantee, but at $60,000-plus a year, he is less expensive to retain than a $100,000-plus older co-worker. In the cold light of day during the last wave of downsizings, older middle managers were the first to go-partly because of their higher salaries, but also because technology allowed workers at lower levels to make decisions once reserved for middle management.

Some are philosophical. "When it happens, it happens," another systems designer believes. "I cannot do anything about it (except be the best I can)."

"The only thing that's in my control is the quality of work that I perform," said a New England senior engineer. "Worrying about being laid off detracts from my quality of work, increasing my chances of being laid off."

"I think my position is secure. I think I could find another [job]," said one.

Even in Japan, job security and unemployment have emerged as key concerns for engineering readers of Nikkei Electronics, EE Times' Japanese partner in the survey. Some 21 percent are "very concerned" about job security, while 53 percent-a rather startling total in what traditionally was the land of lifetime employment-are "somewhat concerned." For the last five years or so, as Japan has struggled through a recalcitrant economy that has refused to recover to its mid-1990s level, Japanese employers have shelved lifetime employment commitments. This year, some of the biggest electronics employers in Japan have announced cutbacks in employment levels. In some cases, companies are simply hiring fewer college engineering graduates.

In other Asian countries, our survey of engineers doesn't find significant concern about job security yet. But the slump in the United States is sure to disrupt projects in Asia and derail plans that Indian, Filipino or Chinese engineers have for emigrating to the United States with a job in hand.

In Europe, job security is also an issue. A quarter of the respondents to the survey conducted by EE Times' partner at U.K.-based Engineering Times say they are "very concerned" about job security, with another third listing themselves as "somewhat concerned." In fact, 27 percent cite layoffs in their immediate workplaces in the past year, along with fewer new hires.

As of September, the U.S. unemployment rate for engineers remained well under 2 percent, according to the IEEE. Companies are not offloading their engineers first; it was a long, hard struggle to staff up again after the downsizings of the early 1990s. But staff reductions have become part of a corporation's defense mechanisms in bad times. No one is immune.

Career satisfaction
American engineers love their careers. Just under 73 percent of American EE respondents to this year's survey are satisfied with both their careers and their companies. If past survey trends hold up, that percentage is likely to dip as more encounter rough economic waters. But even in the worst of times, half our respondents approve of their careers and employers. The picture in Europe is also sanguine as two-thirds of the respondents there expressed satisfaction with career and employer.

But that's not the case with their Far East counterparts. More than 62 percent of the engineers surveyed in China, Korea and other Asian sites are dissatisfied with their careers or employers, or both. And in Japan, just over half pronounced themselves satisfied. It's not so much that the employers are bad; over 58 percent of the Japanese think theirs is a good place to work, while a substantial 83 percent of the Chinese respondents approve of their companies.

One explanation may lie in the type of work and freedom that Americans enjoy vs. their Asian counterparts.

"There are both quantitative and qualitative parameters that influence job satisfaction," Shambhu Agrawal, northern and western region leader for the IT and telecom practice of ABC Consultants Pvt. Ltd. in India., said. "Salary is, of course, important. But the kind of work a company does is perhaps even more important."

In earlier surveys, U.S. EEs have indeed ranked type of work over salary as the key factor in considering a new job. The chance to work on a major, exciting project-such as sending men to Mars-could well be a more decisive factor in where to work and satisfaction than the pay. Employers realize this; recruitment ads often emphasize the "challenges" and "excitement" that their companies' jobs offer. With nine out of 10 Asian respondents saying they'd be interested in a job overseas, it's obvious that engineers there see America as the place where it's at. Incidentally, stock options, the once-coveted recruitment incentive, have lost some of their glitter this year as the stock market plunged (see "Salary" chapter).

In the United States, if an engineer lives in one of the engineering "hub" cities (San Jose, Calif.; Austin, Texas; or the Washington, D.C., or Boston metro areas), he or she can go down the street and find a job. Overall, our respondents have worked for more than two employers in their careers so far (a mean of 2.4). Some 16 percent say they've had five or more employers so far. In fact, 15 percent accepted new jobs in the past year.

Another possible explanation for the lower Asian scores on career satisfaction is that much of the work that Japanese engineers perform can be incremental in nature: tweaking, refining or boosting manufacturability of their products. There is a perception that American engineers get to work on bigger, bolder projects, especially since U.S. designers rarely venture too far outside the design field. Japanese engineers tend to get moved around to the production line, back offices and management, creating a more well-rounded employee, but perhaps a more frustrated designer.

Ultimately, money is the key concern in both Japan and Asia. An astonishing 92 percent of the Japanese respondents rank salaries as a top career issue, compared with 72 percent of Americans. And 69 percent of Asians place salaries high on their lists. It's more understandable in the case of the Asians; American EEs typically earn up to five times more than those in India or the Philippines. In Japan, engineers can indeed earn as much as Americans, though they depend heavily on half-year bonuses.

While EEs around the world share a focus on their paychecks, they vary considerably on other concerns. Americans rank the top career issues as work-life balance, salaries and job security. Asians outside of Japan list technological obsolescence at the top, followed by salaries, education and foreign competition.

Perhaps the widest variance comes, logically enough, with the 14 percent who think that being a consultant would be the ultimate pinnacle in their careers. As might be expected, engineers over 50 are far more likely to choose this job path (23 percent) than EEs under 35 (8 percent).

Some EEs have been forced to pursue the consultant route as they get older, claiming that employers are reluctant to hire older workers. But many have deliberately chosen this independent course because it allows for more freedom of choice about jobs and location. And the handful of consultants who responded to this year's survey earn, on average, $91,000, better than the overall mean.

More than 300 of the American respondents stay late at least one to two nights a week, while another 91 put in three to five nights. There is no particular pattern by industry, age or company size. However, longer hours do translate into higher wages:

• 40-44 hours: $76,275
  
• 45-49 hours: $86,704
  
• 50-54 hours: $89,209
  
• 55-59 hours: $92,166
  
• 60-69 hours: $103,810
  
• 70-plus hours: $110,000
  

Not surprisingly, managers clock about 50 hours a week vs. 46 for staffers. Communications engineers work about four more hours a week than their counterparts in the control and test instrumentation field. And those longer work weeks do take a toll on work-life balance. This year, work-life balance crept ahead of salaries as the No. 1 career issue among American engineers. For some, the economy has tilted the balance:

"Work more, spend more time at work," a communications manager writes. "Less time with family, including weekends. Dreams failed because of stock issues and the economy."

Others haven't seen the balance shifted due to the recession. They've always had it in mind. "I try to make work/life balance a priority and haven't allowed the current economic slowdown to affect my schedule," said a senior engineer who puts in about 50 hours a week. (For a full discussion of work-life balance, see the "Opinion" chapter in this issue.)

Americans took a bit over two weeks' worth of vacation time in 2000. U.S. companies have never been leaders in granting time off; the Europeans enjoy up to four weeks. But in Japan, they have trouble getting their workers to take time-or getting companies to grant them time: Some 20 percent didn't go on vacation last year at all (vs. 6 percent of the Americans) and another 24 percent took only a week.

A substantial 47 percent of the U.S. respondents admitted they searched the Internet for a job in the past 12 months. Of course, we don't know how much of that is simply a casual scroll through the IEEE job database, or the EE Times online classifieds. There appears to be a growing acceptance of the Internet as a recruitment tool: Six out of 10 readers agree that "the Internet is a good place to find a job." In past surveys, however, we have found only a handful who actually obtained a job via the Web. Overall, about 15 percent of this year's 900 respondents landed new positions in the past 12 months, with over half accepting signing bonuses. We don't know how many found their jobs over the Internet.

The sinking state of the economy could change perceptions, but as of this summer, when the surveys were mailed, more than six out of 10 U.S. readers said they intend to stay with their company "for many more years." That finding is consistent with the eight out of 10 who think their company is a good place to work. Companies received similar high ratings in the U.K. and Europe.