Cities worldwide are growing at a rapid pace. But what is the infrastructure need and what are the opportunities for engineers?
The proportion of the world’s population expected to be living in cities in the future just keeps rising.
The United Nations (UN) now estimates that 68% of the world’s population will be living in urban areas by 2050, up from 55% today. This is according to its most recent dataset released in May last year.
“My message to investors is invest in the big [urban] centers,” says Damian Harrington, Colliers head of Europe, Middle East and Africa research. “And follow the infrastructure.”
Colliers’ latest research into investment trends shows that the big global cities dominate the deployment of capital in property. New York and London lead the charge, ahead of Los Angeles, Tokyo and Paris. Four additional markets – Hong Kong, Washington DC, San Francisco and Chicago – round off the global gateway club. This club of nine cities have amassed billions of dollars in real estate investment since 2008.
Engineer Opportunities from Population Shift
The population shift from rural to urban areas, combined with overall population growth, could add another 2.5 billion people to urban areas in just over 20 years. Close to 90% are expected to be accommodated by Asian and African towns and cities.
But realistically, where are the opportunities for engineers going to be?
Pragmatically, the thing to do is probably to follow actual investment. Property investment management firm Colliers International reckons the amount of real money invested in property annually could exceed $2 trillion by 2020.
Adding To Existing Engineering Staffing Shortages
Engineering staffing continues to be a problem for recruiting managers. I confirmed this during my February 28th interview on CBS Radio affiliate WBBM News Radio 780 with hosts Rob Hart and Kris Kridel.
Please click on the link to hear the entire interview: https://bit.ly/2H68GCQ (must adhere to caps).
Many leading engineering associations also confirm this ongoing recruitment problem.
More Recruitment Of Women Engineers and STEM Improvement is Required
The growing global need for engineers, requires both: a) more recruiting of women into engineering and b) improvement of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education.
I recently wrote about the need to recruit more women into engineering fields. You may read my blog article entitled “Engineering Recruiting Tough | More Women Engineers Needed” to learn more.
Ramping up STEM education and making the engineer and science fields more attractive to potential women engineers will provide a greater pool of engineer talent for this worldwide engineering expansion.
Improvement of STEM education and recruiting of more women engineers will also help lessen the strain on engineering recruiters like myself who are struggling to uncover quality engineers for our engineering clients.
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