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Where the Tech Jobs Are: 2016

Source: http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/tech-careers/where-the-tech-jobs-are-2016

(本文僅做翻譯練習之用，粗體字為練習時有感窒礙處，如有錯誤請不吝指正)

The Class of 2016 will enter the most welcoming U.S. job market in nearly a decade: Sixty-seven percent of employers say they plan to hire recent college graduates this year, the highest number since 2007, according to job site CareerBuilder’s annual forecast. Second only to business majors, freshly minted engineers are set to enjoy most of that hiring goodwill as the U.S. economy continues its slow-but-steady postrecession growth. According to a survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers(NACE), at the end of last year, two-thirds of company respondentswereplanning to hire engineers.

2016年進入職場的科技新鮮人將要迎來近十年內最熱烈的就業市場，百分之六十七的雇主計畫在今年內僱用近年的大專畢業生，根據求職網站CareerBuilder的年度調查，此一比例是自2007年以來的高峰。在美國經濟衰退走到了尾聲，緩慢穩健成長的同時，即將成為工程師的新鮮人享有幾乎是最高的雇用意願，僅次於商學院的畢業生。此外，一份由NACE去年底主導的調查指出，有三分之二的受訪公司表示正在計畫增聘工程師。

“The electrical engineer has a lot of opportunity,” says Richard Zambacca, president of technical recruiting firm Randstad Engineering. “Those entering the workplace now and those in the field have a bright future ahead of them.” EEs’ “highly transferable skills” make them sought-after candidates for a variety of U.S. firms, Zambacca says, adding that this year’s opportunities are particularly ripe in sectors such as medical devices, automotive systems, and telecommunications. (The average starting salary for EEs this year is US $66,269, according to NACE.)

「有一堆的機會等著電機工程師。」科技招募公司Randstad Engineering的主席Richard Zambacca如此說道。「那些正在進入或者已經置身在這個領域的人們有著光明的未來再等著他們。」電機工程師擁有的「高度可轉用技能」使他們成為眾多美國企業追捧的對象，此外，有許多方面如醫療，汽車工業，電信方面的人才需求也已經成熟。(根據NACE的調查，今年電機工程師的起薪是一年66269美元)

The consumer tech space is also white-hot for new engineers. “The job market seems very good for our students, in both hardware and software,” says Anantha Chandrakasan, the Vannevar Bush Professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, who served as the school’s EECS department head from July 2011 to June 2016. His students are finding jobs with employers ranging from brand-new startups to tech titans like Google and Microsoft. Hot sectors for Chandrakasan’s grads include the Internet of Things, medical electronics, 3D printers, and robotics.

另外，消費性科技領域對於新進工程師的需求也正邁向白熱化。「職業市場無論在於硬體或是軟體方面，對於我們的學生都相當友善。」曾經主持過麻省理工電機資訊部門的教授Anantha Chandrakasan這麼說著。他的學生正在尋找的職缺從新創企業到google、microsoft等的科技巨人都有，熱門的領域包括物聯網、醫用電子、3D列印以及機器人。

But an increasing skills gap is also driving demand in less sexy-sounding fields, particularly in Europe, where engineers are sorely needed in such areas as transportation, construction, and life sciences. “When you look at the schooling situation, no one graduates saying they want to be a construction engineer or a trackside rail engineer,” says Keith Jones, the London-based business director at Talascend. “We as an industry don’t do a good job of exposing new engineers to all of the avenues that are available to them. But that’s what we need and where the opportunity lies.”

而逐漸提高的技術門檻也正推高一些聽起來較不那麼酷炫的職場的需求，尤其是在歐洲，運輸、結構、生科等工程師都備受渴求。「當把目光注視在學校裡，你會發現沒有一個畢業生想要當結構工程師或是鐵路工程師。」Talascend 倫敦分公司經理Keith Jones指出。「我們做為一家企業並沒有做好展示所有可行道路給新進工程師的工作，那些正是我們需要同時也是充滿機會的。」

That opportunity is due in part to several high-speed rail and transportation infrastructure projects that are in full swing across Europe, including the United Kingdom’s Crossrail service, due to begin limited operations in May 2017, and other rail schemes in countries including France, Germany, and Spain that are set for completion in 2017.

所謂的機會部分來自於正如火如荼於歐洲展開的幾項高速鐵路與運輸基礎建設計畫，包括預定於2017年五月開始有限營運的倫敦橫貫鐵路以及法國、德國、與西班牙等國家計畫於同年完成的鐵路方案。

“If we look at transportation, rail, and aerospace, and go back to the development of these systems all those decades ago, they didn’t expect billions of footfalls through these links,” Jones says. “People take public transport to work and fly all over Europe. We need bigger platforms, we need Wi-Fi. Mostly, we need an overall reliable infrastructure for a system that millions depend upon for their daily lives.”

Jones說道，「如果我們回溯數十年前交通、鐵路、航空等系統數十年前的發展，當時他們沒有預料到今天承襲下來這麼大量的發展，人們透過公共運輸去工作，搭乘飛機在整個歐洲裡移動。我們需要一個更大的平台，Wifi, 最重要的是，我們需要一個可靠的的基礎建設系統支持數以百萬計人口的日常需求。」

In Asia the slowdown of China’s economic growth continues to “have a knock-on effect” across the region, according to Jones. For engineers, “manufacturing will be the biggest casualty. That’s not to say the manufacturing market is quiet; it’s just not at the level we’ve come to expect,” he says. Like the rest of the world, Asia is feeling the downturn in the oil and gas market, though Jones says recent project awards and approvals seem to signal that the worst is over.

Jones指出，在亞洲，中國經濟成長減速正持續在整個區域引發連鎖反應。對於工程師而言，「製造業深受其害。並不是說製造市場一片寂然，不過的確不合預期。」正如同全球其他地區，亞洲也正面對著石油與天然氣市場的低迷，雖然Jones指出近來的一些計畫或許代表著最黑暗的時刻即將結束。

Just as it is in Europe, the rail sector is Asia’s bright spot. Talascend is tracking a pipeline of more than $150 billion worth of rail and metro projects in Asia to shuttle around a booming population.

正如同在歐洲，鐵路建設也是亞洲區域發展的亮點。Talascend正在追蹤亞洲地區總價值超過一千五百億美元的數項鐵道與地鐵計畫，這些計畫預計提供快速成長中的人口使用。