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Hot Market and Open Positions Contrast with Decline in Interest in Engineering Courses, Generating Alert of Professional Deficit and Risk of Blackout Until 2030, According to Sector Entities.
With the construction market hot and open positions, companies report difficulty hiring engineers with the required profile. At the same time, course coordinations observe a decrease in interest from newcomers.
The Confea warns of the risk of a “blackout” in the next decade if the trend doesn’t change. The result is a paradox: steady demand, slowing supply of professionals, and a mismatch between education and sector expectations.
Construction Market Faces Difficulty in Hiring
In Espírito Santo, representatives from the construction industry describe a scenario of unfilled opportunities.
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“Soon we will end up having a labor ‘blackout’ if this continues. Today we have a construction market in the State with many job opportunities. Unlike other areas, we have positions to fill, but we have difficulty finding qualified people,” says Fernando Feltz, director of Sinduscon-ES.
The local diagnosis echoes in other regions, according to the union and professional councils.
There are offers, but there is a lack of candidates ready to immediately take on technical and management roles, which leads companies to prolong selection processes or invest in internal training.
Decrease in Engineering Newcomers Worries Universities
On the education side, coordinations report a decline in the number of students choosing engineering careers.
“Last year, at the Brazilian Engineering Congress, data showed that the number of incoming students is decreasing over the years. We are also observing this in our daily activities. There are fewer interested students,” says Clarisse Pereira, coordinator of the Production Engineering and Civil Engineering courses at UniSales.
Beyond enrollment numbers, there is a misalignment between what young people imagine and what they find in the job market.
“There isn’t such a good salary for everyone who graduates. Many companies hire with other qualifications, such as assistants. This means that when they graduate, they don’t receive the compensation they expected,” she states.
This reality shock has discouraged some candidates and contributed to dropout rates in the early cycle.
Challenges of Starting a Career and Salary Expectation
The beginning of the career often requires experience, certifications, and in some cases, involvement in support roles before progressing to a full engineer position.
“The market expects the person to graduate ready, and that’s not what happens. They will still need to gain experience, earn certifications, and specialize. Only then will you reach the level that the market expects,” explains Clarisse.
This gap between graduation and practice helps to understand why positions remain unfilled.
Instead of an immediately ready professional to manage projects, budgets, and teams, many companies find recent graduates still in the technical consolidation phase.
The transition period elongates when internships were not very practical or when the education did not include software, standards, and procedures adopted in the daily worksite environment.
Universities Update Curriculums to Reduce Gap
Universities and university centers report that they have been adjusting curriculums to respond to the new context.
At UniSales, practical activities have been included since the early periods, with projects and real problem-solving in partnership with the private sector.
The change aims to reduce the gap between the classroom and the worksite, bringing students closer to planning, safety, and quality control routines.
The movement is seen in other institutions. “Engineering courses are undergoing restructuring, they are updating,” highlights Geilma Vieira, deputy head of the Engineering Department at Ufes.
Among the focuses are active methodologies, integrated laboratories, and emphasis on digital project and management tools.
The expectation is that early exposure to concrete challenges will shorten the learning curve when entering the job market.
Confea Warns of Deficit Risk Until 2030
Professional councils raise the alert tone. For Vinicius Marchese, president of Confea, the trend of decline in education has direct effects on the country.
“Seeing the decline in the number of engineering graduates in Brazil is not just a statistic. It’s a warning. If this trend continues, by 2030 we may face a deficit of 1 million engineers, and this directly impacts the country’s development,” he stated in a social media post.
Although the projection depends on enrollment behavior, dropout rates, and job market absorption, the central message is unequivocal: without restoring the base of newcomers and accelerating the transition from university to work, the country may encounter bottlenecks in executing projects, in industry, and in technology-intensive sectors.
Infrastructure, energy, sanitation, and affordable housing are likely to feel the impact first.
Factors Holding Back the Pipeline of New Professionals
Besides an initial salary below expectations, the pipeline is narrowed by the perception of a long career path until achieving technical autonomy.
Some students migrate to areas with a more linear trajectory of salary growth or with routines less subject to travel and strict project deadlines.
On the other hand, companies signal that to accelerate promotions, they value project portfolios, robust internship experience, and mastery of technical standards.
In parallel, there is an effort to enhance the attractiveness of graduation: job fairs, technology initiation notices, and residency programs in engineering attempt to show, from the first year, the opportunities for social impact and innovation.
Coordinators evaluate that the combination of early practice, transparency about the career path, and clear communication about stepwise compensation can reduce frustrations and retain talent.
Course Correction Between Companies and Universities
In the short term, unions and companies advocate for expanding partnerships with universities to bridge the gap between theory and practice.
Integrative projects and supervised internships with clear objectives emerge as tools to accelerate the development of essential competencies.
Meanwhile, academic departments revisit syllabi, update software used in subjects, and encourage certifications recognized by the sector.
Still, without more young people choosing engineering and without alignment of salary expectations upon entry, the mismatch is likely to persist.
The convergence between supply and demand requires clear signaling from the market, consistent career guidance in high school, and curriculums that deliver applicable skills from early on. The challenge is clear and has a short deadline: projects and works do not wait.
Maior desgosto que tive foi fazer engenharia mecânica, atè gostava das materias mas a verdade è que nao se aprende o essencial que o mercado procura, 1. se aprende a dimensionar mas na hora H vc vai pro administrativo. 2. Uma porrada de matèria **** que so te consome tempo ,como noção de algoritmo, programacao basica, quimica de laboratorio, fisica de laboratorio etc 3. Nao ha o menor lobby no paìs assim como ocorre em direito ou medicina em que ha evolucao na carreira, entao vc nunca entra numa empresa como junior e sim como assistente de engenharia pra ganhar quase nada. Isso desanima absurdamente. Enfim a lista nao para……
Fazer 5 anos em engenharia, ter nota boa, ser competente. Pra entrar num mercado super concorrido como Analista 2 de alguma empresa. Poucos engenheiros ficam como engenheiro na carteira de trabalho. Não vemos isso acontecendo na medicina , não existe Analista de medicina 1, 2, 3…
Sou engenheiro aposentado, declaro que desde a a minha graduaçao em 1984 tive muita dificuldade em me inserir no mercado de trabalho e trabalhei de geaça para começar a ter experiencia que o mercado sempre exigiu e partir dai consegui melhorez oportunidades, porem sempre com um mercado muito oscilante na atea da construcao civil, posso dizer que hoje muita experiencia tanto na area da construçao civil como tambem na area educacional pois tambem investi em especializacao, atraves de um mestrado e doutorado. Hoje quero distancia de tudo isso, pois o retorno veio mas foi muito sacrificado. Area da construçao civil no Brasil merece esse desprezo dos candidatos que buscam areas com retorno profissional mais justo.