[quote=deadzone]Sdengineer, what company do you work for? I know a couple local software engineers who are recently layed off, the job market is difficult right now for engineers in San Diego (and probably everywhere).

I recruited at a high tech job fair a few months ago here in town and it was shocking how many people were looking for work, and how few companies were represented at the fair. The difference from a couple years ago was startling.

I have to disagree that there is enough work to employee all engineers in the US. The fact is in a down economy with severe credit problems, it is difficult for companies, particulaly start ups to get any kind of venture capital. Without funding, there is no jobs.

This may only be temporary but the fact is, the job market is bad right onw, and getting worse. Engineers are not immune.[/quote]

Sorry, didn’t mean to imply that engineers were completely immune. The fact is that most companies right now are in a hiring freeze, which impacts new job seekers. Few companies that I’m aware of, however, are actively laying engineers off. During a downturn, this seems to be normal behavior for most companies (excluding tech led recessions like the dot com bust).

I work for a hospital equipment manufacturer in San Diego. Won’t say which one, but there are several companies fitting this description in San Diego, and I know that ALL of us are hiring engineers right now (for specific needs). What we are not doing right now is hiring newly degreed engineers – that is, unfortunately, something that happens during pretty much all downturns. New college graduates unfortunately get the short end of the stick in every recession.

Those degrees, however, are not useless – on the next uptick, expect all of them to be hired relatively quickly.

No job category is completely immune, but what is outside of medical professions? During normal economic conditions, engineering probably has one of the lowest unemployment rates around, and even during recessions in most cases engineering jobs (once landed anyway) are typically fairly recession proof.

I’d wager that the high proportion of engineering and other high tech/biotech jobs, as well as the military, are the reasons San Diego is doing much better compared to the rest of CA in terms of unemployment rate.