So, I went to a social for Tau Beta Pi, an engineering group on campus I’m involved with (I know–engineering social–it’s an oxymoron), and they mentioned that engineering is one of the top careers to have during a recession. The sad thing is why:

Mechanical Engineer (and all engineering fields). With every passing year, more skilled-labor jobs are replaced by complex automation or robotics systems. For example, some hospitals have turned to “robotic pharmacies” to help dispense medication. It’s the engineers who help build these automated systems, says Jim Turnquist, director of career services at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Mich. “In the U.S. we only graduate 70,000 engineers per year, but we’re going to need 100,000 per year. The demand is going to go way up.”