As the software engineer quoted above indicates, a number of engineers get upset with the idea of their profession's being swamped with newcomers. There was no request for opinions on raising immigration limits on this year's survey, but a majority of EE Times readers have supported hikes in the limits the past two years. Staff-level engineers generally were more strongly opposed to loosening immigration restrictions than managers. The U.S. electronics industry is thriving, U.S. respondents said. Some 72 percent agree that the industry is progressing.
Employment is high, salaries are up and the industry is making money.
But 23 percent don't see it that way, describing it as flat. That's understandable, since not all segments of the electronics industry have done well in the past 12 months, especially those that had major Asian customers. Also, semiconductor vendors and their suppliers underwent some retrenchment in 1998-'99. For instance, some 33 percent of respondents in controls and test see the industry as flat vs. only 16 percent of those in the generally upbeat communications equipment sector. Two factors may be at play in that area.