I'm just back from the annual ISA Marketing and Sales Summit in Boston, and the final day featured a panel led by Shari Worthington. During this panel, Walt Boyes (editor, CONTROL magazine) and Gary Mintchell (editor, Automation World) were speculating as to how many automation professionals there are in the world.

Their best guess was just under a million, which pretty much meshes with my best guess (say, 800,000 to 900,000). However, none of us know of any really reliable figures.

One major caveat - the count would, of course, hinge on how you classify "automation professionals". Does this include supplier personnel (e.g., sales engineers, field application engineers, etc.)? I think so. How about instrumentation techs? Probably. Etc...

Does anyone have any better information or, barring that, good guesses to contribute? Walt and Gary both said they might write articles on the topic, so maybe we can give them some fodder .

Ken Crater

 

I know there's going to be one less, if conditions don't improve soon. I may be automating a shovel or hamburgers or something.

Regards
cww

 

What about maintenance personnel? What about production engineers? What about people who integrate production systems into ERP systems? Do any of those count? What about the guy who sells you a thermal transfer label printer? Is he an automation professional when you install it on the production line, but not one when you install it in the shipping department?

I don't think there is a sharp line that you can draw. What you will find is that especially in small companies the same individual can end up wearing many hats. This is especially the case in companies which are more focused on getting the problem fixed than in what your job title is. The best you can do is create an arbitrary definition and stick to that.

 

I'm pretty underemployed these days myself. There are glimmers of hope, but still not many jobs for those who don't have one. I wish I knew Java or SQL Server really well, that is where the jobs are at the moment. That and automotive electronics, especially battery circuits.

I've been applying to computer programming jobs and going back to school to work towards a Masters Degree.

Tough times don't last, tough people do....  

Bill Sturm

 

What is ugly about this situation is that even having the skills that the "dislocated workers" folks would advise you to acquire like electronics, programming, automation, blah, blah, blah, is of little value if businesses are simply not hiring or investing. About all you can do is wait. And if you are a boomer, blatant age discrimination negates the asset of broad experience. Unless you want to buy a bar, or get into auto repair or other unrelated service, a startup is not a good bet now either. My guess is there are a lot fewer of us than before the election.

Regards,
cww

 

The definition I used to estimate the 800,000 to 900,000 number was non-jobtitle-specific. I tried to estimate the number of employees in manufacturing and the process industries who spend at least 50% of their time working in automation roles. If we limit it to engineers and operators and technicians who work nearly all their time in automation, I believe the number is much smaller.

Walt

Walt Boyes
Editor in Chief
Control and Controlglobal.com
www.controlglobal.com

Mailto:wboyes [at] putman.net
Read my blog SoundOFF!! At www.controlglobal.com/soundoff