The REAL Revenge of the Nerds: Identified finds Engineers More in Demand, Command Higher Salaries Than Ever
Guest post by Eliza Walsh, Director of Public Relations, Social Media and Communications at Identified.com 
I recently joined Identified, a cool new technology start-up based in San Francisco that has the largest database of professional information on Facebook. Identified has built a technology that provides real-time, interactive feedback on how “in-demand” professionals are to companies right now through a scoring system. I came on board as a communications pro, but it was really my experience with understanding data and being able to explain the technical aspects of what Identified does to a general audience that got me the job.
One of my first projects was looking at our database to see what types of professions were most in demand across the board. The answer to that question was very clear: engineers. We decided to delve deeper into the numbers and release a white paper that puts this trend into context. The bottom line of what we found? Engineers are flying high when it comes to opportunities for success now and in the future. We based our conclusions on an unprecedented data set of 50 million Facebook profiles, analyzing 1.2 billion data points on professionals’ work history, education and demographic data.
The result is our white paper series, “The “Revenge of the Nerds” (download Part 1 here). In short, we found that over the last 10 years, the demand for engineering talent has grown dramatically. As a result, the salaries of engineers have increased rapidly, and the unemployment rate among them has remained extremely low compared to national averages. Identified Scores show engineers to currently be the most in-demand group with the highest scores across the board. Does this have broad-reaching implications in the American economy? You bet. And our study aims to put some hard numbers behind this trend.
To find out more details behind the rise of the engineer, download Part 1 in its entirety. Then, Check back for Parts II and III, which will look more closely at the typical career path of the engineer, and the recent trend of the engineer as entrepreneur.
A few interesting findings to whet your appetite:
- Engineers are far more in-demand than their liberal arts equivalent. They are searched for, viewed, contacted and hired 23 times more often.
- The more work experience they have, the more in-demand engineers are relative to their liberal arts equivalents.
- The reasons for this growth in demand are manifold: the growth of giant technology companies like Google, Apple, and Oracle, the startup boom and the number of new technology companies being launched, the increased automation and mechanization of traditional brick-and-mortar businesses, and more.
- Despite the increased demand, the number of engineers being produced in the U.S. has barely grown in recent years.
- Not only is the U.S. limiting the number of foreign-born engineers who might be able to help satisfy engineering demand, but U.S. educational institutions are filling their already limited programs with foreign students who are often compelled to leave the country after graduating.
