Aerospace and defence backlogs keep engineering demand high

Sustained aerospace and defence backlogs have kept US engineering vacancies elevated, with systems, manufacturing and quality engineering the largest categories.

Clearance and citizenship requirements limit supply, so primes are investing in internal training pipelines and rehiring retirees on part-time terms.

Supply-chain employers report the sharpest difficulty, competing without prime-level compensation.

Engineering shortages are almost always a supply problem rather than an attraction problem, so the lever is criteria design. Employers who separate hard requirements — licensure, clearance, commissioning experience — from preferences consistently fill roles faster, because they stop screening out candidates who could be productive within a quarter.

Across the US, the pattern is regional rather than national. Aggregate figures hide markets that are still extremely tight, so we benchmark by metro and sector rather than by country-level averages.

If you are hiring in engineering right now, the practical takeaway is to shorten your process and be explicit about what is genuinely non-negotiable. Fewer, better matched candidates almost always beat a longer list — and in a market moving this quickly, speed of decision is itself a competitive advantage.