DATABYTES

COMPILED BY MICHAEL GIBBONS
INFOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY I-SHAN CHEN

TECH SLUMP

Engineering bachelor’s degrees declined by 1.2 percent from 2006 to 2007.

This ended seven consecutive years of growth, which helped the U.S. recover from a decade of non-growth in the 1990s, when bachelor’s degrees hovered between 62,000 and 65,000. The recent drop is largely attributable to a decline in computer science degrees awarded by engineering colleges and in electrical/computer engineering degrees. The remaining engineering fields are faring well.

CHANGE IN BACHELOR'S DEGREES AWARDED: 2004 - 2007
All Other Engineering Degrees	14.6%
Computer Science (inside engineering)	-29.6%
Electrical/Computer Engineering	-14.7%

COMPUTER SCIENCE & ELECTRICAL/COMPUTER ENGINEERING AS A SHARE OF TOTAL ENGINEERING BACHELOR'S DEGREES
2004	41%
2007	33%

TOTAL ENGINEERING BACHELOR'S DEGREES VS. ENGINEERING BACHELOR'S DEGREES EXCLUDING COMPUTER SCIENCE
YEAR	TOTAL ENGINEERING BACHELOR'S DEGREES	ENGINEERING BACHELOR'S DEGREES EXCLUDING COMPUTER SCIENCE
1999	61,553	57,376
2000	63,820	58,310
2001	64,200	58,138
2002	66,781	59,939
2003	71,165	62,516
2004	72,893	63,737
2005	73,602	65,183
2006	74,186	66,856
2007	73,315	66,869

Data source: American Society for Engineering Education.

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