US Engineering Employment During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This paper analyzes the employment trajectories of engineering workers-both workers in occupations formally classified as engineering and workers in occupations not formally classified as engineering but where engineering knowledge is important-during the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that the employment rate of workers in engineering occupations fell by 6.6 percentage-points at the onset of the pandemic compared to a 13.1 percentage-point drop among workers in non-engineering jobs, and that workers in jobs where engineering knowledge is important were less likely to suffer employment loss during the pandemic, regardless of whether their occupation is formally classified as a STEM engineering occupation. This suggests that engineering knowledge is beneficial in reducing a worker's unemployment risk during recessions. We also find that industries with the highest share of engineers as workers tended to experience smaller percentage declines in employment during the pandemic compared to overall US employment, although employment in aerospace and motor vehicle manufacturing industries remained over 10% below pre-recession employment as of 2021Q4.