What Are the Mechanical Engineering Jobs in 2021?

Time to Analyze the Data to Target Your Job Search Solution

For years, it has been argued that mechanical engineer jobs will decline. Yet the Bureau of Labor Statistics has forecast that the number of jobs for mechanical engineers will grow at least as fast as the average rate of jobs growth in the United States through to 2029.

Clearly, mechanical engineering isn’t dying – but how we think about the discipline is evolving. It’s a broad area, often associated with the industrial, manufacturing, automotive, aviation, civil, and construction sectors.

Today, mechanical engineers are multiskilled specialists, able to apply those skills, their experience, and their knowledge to a multitude of applications. What might be the hottest roles for mechanical engineers in 2021 and beyond?

Automotive Engineering

The move to electric vehicles as the future of cars is accelerating at breakneck speed. All the major car manufacturers are plowing resource into electric car development. Governments around the world are legislating to ban the production of fossil fuel vehicles.

Mechanical engineers will be at the forefront of development. They are needed to ideate and innovate solutions for challenges that include energy loss, torque issues, and integrating electrical systems.

Manufacturing and Industrial Engineering

The coronavirus pandemic has compelled governments, industry, manufacturers, and retailers to rethink their business strategies. As retailers and consumers are becoming increasingly conscious of and affected by location of manufacture, production is likely to be increasingly on-shored.

However, the strategy of producing more domestically brings with it the need to reduce operating and equipment maintenance costs, improve productivity, and increase efficiency.

You can expect greater levels of automation in factories and industrial facilities. Robotics and machine learning will be areas in which mechanical engineers will be critical to the evolution of production facilities that rely on integrated systems.

Biomechatronic

Biomechatronic – the integration of biology and mechanical engineering – crosses over between robotics and neuroscience. In this area, you’ll be working to develop solutions that may include prosthetic limbs and other ‘mechanical body parts’ that replace or replicate the human body.

The effective operation of these devices requires mechanical sensors, controllers, and actuators – and this is where the mechanical engineer’s primary involvement will be. This demand for this technology and the devices it produces is growing rapidly, and one exceptional source of demand is the US Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense.

Nanotechnology

Forget about mechanical engineering being concerned with huge equipment, large motors, and motor systems used to move bridges and machinery. Nanotechnology is the future in the development of materials, energy storage systems, biomedical devices, food, textiles, and environmental applications.

For a Big Career in Mechanical Engineering, Think Small

As technology continues to advance, the rate of innovation is accelerating. Data is getting bigger while storage methods are getting smaller. Equipment is driven by digitalized technology, people are thinking and going greener, and electronics are becoming more complex. We are using mechanical engineering in a variety of applications that only a few years ago lived only in the imagination.

The innovations that technology is producing are all used in real-world situations – cars, factory equipment, materials, and even body parts. We don’t drive a computer mouse. We cannot eat data. A motherboard cannot build furniture.

Mechanical engineering is the link that enables innovation to create practical uses that improve lives. Evolution of technology is producing smaller and smaller applications, but the role of mechanical engineers looks set to become increasingly important – without it, innovation has little meaning for many people.

Have you got the skills to think small for a big career in mechanical engineering? Then we would like to hear from you. Contact TotalTek today.