ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES | APRIL 2024 21 with stakeholders to develop strategies for attracting, retaining, educating, and graduating a broader population of undergraduate and graduate students in the field. How is this accomplished? Let’s start by reviewing data for the job outlook growth for the field over the next 10 years and the number of degrees awarded during the past decade. JOB OUTLOOK GROWTH The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 5% employment growth of metallurgical and materials engineering jobs from 2022-2032, which is 2% faster than the average for all occupations but 2% slower than the average for all engineering (Fig. 1). This corresponds to about 1500 openings each year for metallurgical and materials engineers to keep pace with the increasing demand for new materials and manu- facturing processes and to replace workers who retire or change to different occupations[8]. The number of B.S. degrees awarded shows a fairly steady increase from 2013-2022, whereas the number of M.S. and Ph.D. degrees awarded were fairly flat over the same period (Fig. 2). The total number of metallurgical and materials engineering degrees awarded between 2013-2022 ranged from 3203 to 3974 with a peak of 4246 occurring in 2020. The 10-year average change is 2.71%[9-18]. From a demographics point of view, (Tables 1-3), the number of metallurgical and materials engineering degrees awarded from 2019-2022 are promising. However, they have not kept pace with the changing demographics in the United States population. For each of the tables, “Underrepresented (race/ethnicity)” denotes groups traditionally underrepresented in engineering based on race and ethnicity. The percentage of metallurgical/materials engineering B.S. degrees awarded to those from groups traditionally underrepresented in engineering ranged from 12% to 13.7%. This is less than the percentage of all engineering degrees awarded to underrepresented groups, which ranged from 14.7% to 16.8% during the same time frame. Women comprised an average of 31.8% (30.4% to 32.7%) of the metallurgical/materials engineering B.S. degrees compared to an average of 23.4% (22.4% to 24.1%) of all engineering degrees awarded during this time frame. The percentage of women earning degrees in metallurgical/materials Fig. 1 — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics job outlook growth for metallurgical and materials engineers 2022-2032[8]. Fig. 2 — Metallurgical and materials engineering degrees awarded 2013-2022[9-18]. TABLE 1 — METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS ENGINEERING B.S. DEGREES AWARDED BY DEMOGRAPHICS 2019 TO 2022[15-18] B.S. degrees 2019 2020 2021 2022 Underrepresented (race/ethnicity) [% of all engineering degrees] 266 (12.6%) [14.7%] 263 (12%) [15.5%] 230 (12.5%) [16.5%] 293 (13.7%) [16.8%] Women [% of all engineering degrees] 664 (31.5%) [22.4%] 719 (32.7%) [23%] 600 (32.6%) [24%] 649 (30.4%) [24.1%] Total metallurgy/ materials B.S. degrees 2108 2199 1841 2136
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