Florida Structural Engineers Association

As we explore workforce trends in our industry, we reached out to principals at firms across Florida and learned that the demand for new structural engineers is greater than the number of graduates looking to start their structural engineering careers.

Here are three viewpoints from firm leaders on the staffing crunch.

The state of the workforce for structural engineers in Florida has been vastly impacted by three key factors that have increased the demand for structural engineering services.

First, Florida has experienced a net migration of new residents, which has increased the demand for new housing, schools, hospitals and other services. This increased demand has fueled the design and construction industries.

Second, the collapse of Champlain Towers has increased the demand for structural engineering consultation on existing buildings, both residential and commercial, as building owners attempt to be better custodians of the building crop.

Lastly, Hurricane Ian has devastated Southwest Florida, resulting in the need for structural evaluations of damaged buildings and an increased demand for restoration and new design projects to replace the damaged structures.

These three key factors have boosted the demand for structural engineers, which has resulted in a shortage of structural engineering candidates to fill job vacancies. Increased wages and more flexible work schedules have been a result.

In Tallahassee, we have seen a decline of graduating civil engineers interested in structural engineering. Many of the recent graduates from the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering have shown more interest in the other disciplines that fall under the civil engineering degree.

Additionally, we have seen more engineers graduating and taking jobs with contractors in our area rather than structural firms as the contractors will typically pay the engineers higher starting salaries than our local private firms. We have also seen an increase of graduating engineers interested in structural engineering moving away from Tallahassee to live and work in larger cities where more opportunities are available especially in regards to designing larger structures.

Even with this shift of interest in structural engineering or structural engineering jobs in Tallahassee, our local structural firms are busier than ever, so we have not yet seen a decline in work or a decline in the need of hiring new or experienced engineers.

In Palm Beach County, we have seen an increase in workforce demand due to the new building safety law. We are seeking more inspectors due to the increased project load. But we’re receiving very few resumes, and the ones we do receive do not have the proper qualifications that a special inspector’s authorized representative should have.

For structural engineering designer positions, there has been an ongoing issue with finding young engineers who know how to design. There are very few civil engineering graduates who are interested in structural engineering, and graduates who are interested have very little structural design knowledge. Employers are forced to expend a significant amount of time and energy training new graduates.

My opinion is that we need a better system going forward, where young graduates can “hit the ground running” when they join a structural firm. Perhaps colleges and universities can implement a 2-year mentorship program where the real-world training is obtained under PhD-level oversight.

This way, the hiring company does not have to expend so many resources to train a young engineer. Perhaps we’ll also have better, more uniformly qualified engineers with this type of new system.

The Florida Structural Engineers Association is dedicated to the advancement and enhancement of the practice of structural engineering in Florida, to the constant improvement of the Florida Building Code and other rules and regulations relative to structural engineering, and to the absolute safety of our buildings, bridges and other structures.