Reason #34: Two and a Half MEs

For every mechanical-engineering opening, there are about two and a half of you. Call it Two and a Half MEs. No laugh track, no Malibu beach house, just arithmetic you cannot out-argue (see Reason #24 and Reason #1).

Here are the numbers you live under. Openings run about 18,100 per year in mechanical engineering (BLS, 2025). In a recent year, 36,224 new ME bachelor’s degrees were awarded (NCES, 2022). Initial H-1B entrants in mechanical-engineering occupations added another 2,714 fresh competitors (USCIS, 2025). About 5,300 already-qualified MEs were unemployed at any moment using a 1.8% proxy for the broader architecture and engineering group, applied to 286,760 employed MEs (BLS CPS & OEWS, 2025). Mechanical Engineering Technology graduates add roughly 1,455 more who often apply to the same requisitions (ASEE, 2024). Add that up and you get roughly 45,700 people for 18,100 seats, or about 2.5 applicants per opening. The flow is steady, not a one-off spike (USCIS, 2025; NCES, 2022).

What does two and a half per seat do to “entry-level”? Well, you already know if you read Reason #12, but if not. It turns “preferred” into required. It turns “nice to have” into the first screen. It makes internships the gate you were told to use, then it removes the gate for your field (see Reason #5) or replaces it with seasonal technician work that does not carry over. In a crowd, hiring favors the person who already lived inside the fixtures and calendars you will inherit (see Reason #10) not the person who could learn them quickly (see Reason #14). What do you think “preferred experience” means in a market like that?

It stays crowded because the pipeline keeps refilling. ME is the default major for undecided engineers, so the inflow never slows even when the roles narrow (see Reason #4). Your pool is not just your class; it is global, it is last year’s class, and it is incumbents who never left the queue (again, see Reason #24). There is no guild to thicken the shield when budgets tighten or when titles blur between engineer and technologist without changing the work (see Reason #13).

Geography gets a vote. Physical tests, line stops, supplier trials, and pilot builds happen in places, not in browsers. When the opening finally picks a name, it often picks the person within driving distance of the plant (see Reason #20). The arithmetic that crowded you into the funnel is the same arithmetic that either keep you near the fixtures after you get through (see Reason #25) or in greener pastures (see Reason #22) if you don't.

References

American Society for Engineering Education. (2024). Engineering & Engineering Technology by the Numbers, 2023. https://ira.asee.org/by-the-numbers/

Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2025). Mechanical engineers, Occupational Outlook Handbook. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/mechanical-engineers.htm

Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2025). Unemployed persons by occupation and sex (Annual averages). https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat25.htm

Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2025). Data tables for the overview of May 2024 occupational employment and wages. https://www.bls.gov/oes/2024/may/featured_data.htm

National Center for Education Statistics. (2022). Table 325.47: Degrees in … mechanical engineering … 1959–60 through 2020–21. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d22/tables/dt22_325.47.asp

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. (2025). Characteristics of H-1B specialty occupation workers: FY 2024. https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/reports/ola_signed_h1b_characteristics_congressional_report_FY24.pdf