PCB Design Industry Thrives While in Need of New Recruits

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The profession is ever more lucrative, but aging, based on our annual survey.

“We’re all on a safe trajectory until we run out of fuel, [and] the role of the designer is nearing running out of fuel. We need to prepare for attrition.”

So said Jennifer Waskow, a printed circuit design manager at Rockwell Collins, during a user group conference earlier this year. Based on the results of the latest PCD&F designers’ salary survey, the time to prepare is at hand.

The 2015 Designers’ Salary Survey offers good news and troubling news. The good: Results indicate higher salaries and bonuses, larger staff sizes, increased benefits and educational opportunities, and less concern about job security. In other words, the economy, with regard to bare board design, is excelling. The bad: There still aren’t enough young designers to replace those who are really near the end of their careers.

From mid-June to mid-July, Printed Circuit Design & Fab conducted a global survey of bare board designers, managers, and design engineers, receiving 499 qualified responses, up from 428 last year. Data compiled included salaries, job functions, titles, project types and quantity, benefits, education, years of experience, challenges, locations, ages, and end markets, to name some. This year, PCD&F also asked about the number of circuit board designers companies employ worldwide, as well as in which regions these designers are being hired. Survey results are intended to paint a picture of the state of the industry rather than provide a thorough scientific study.

Of the 499 respondents, nearly 68% identified themselves as PCB designers, including the “senior” designation, down from 74% in 2014 (TABLE 1). By contrast, the number of engineers who completed the survey this year rose to 18.8%, compared to 13.9% last year. More than half the senior designers (54%) are in the US, according to the survey. Among other key titles, design manager and CAD librarian percentages both upticked this year.

TABLE 1. Respondents by Job Title

With that, 73% said their principal job function includes schematic, layout, placement, etc., down from 78% in 2014, while engineering-related job functions increased from 6% in 2014 to 9% this year. Design management and engineering management were both up slightly in 2015. Engineering consulting and ECAD librarian both received more than 2% of responses in 2015.

The number of designers indicating they work for OEMs rose this year as well, to 72%, compared to 67% last year. Designers working for EMS firms/contract assemblers fell slightly from just over 3% in 2014 to 2.4% in 2015. More than one-fifth of those responding indicated they work at least in part at a service bureau. The remainder work for fabricators or in consulting roles.

While the 2014 results suggested a possible influx of new, young designers on the horizon, this year’s results reinforced the notion that a staggering number of designers are nearing retirement with too few to replace them. Nearly one-third of this year’s respondents said they have over 30 years of experience in the industry, up from 28.3% in 2014, and up from 25.4% in 2013 (TABLE 2). Those with more than 20 years of experience represented more than 63% of respondents, up from 56.3% last year. Of the designers located in the US, 57% said they have more than 25 years of experience. Global newcomers with 10 or fewer years under their belts accounted for less than 15% in 2015, compared to 20% last year. In the near future, veteran designers could drop dramatically from the survey results as they exit the workforce; it will be notable to observe how the numbers shake out then.

TABLE 2. Years of PCB Design Experience

Logically, age and experience are increasing simultaneously. Some 59% of designers who took this year’s survey are over 50, compared to 52.9% in 2014, and 66.5% of designers over 50 are in the US. Nearly a quarter of all respondents fall between 51 and 55. Another 18% are under 40, while 28% were under 40 last year.

Demographics based on gender haven’t changed, with males making up 89% of designers who took the survey, flat with 2014.

One reason the average designer age and experience were higher in this year’s survey could be a byproduct of geography. A substantial number of designers who responded to this survey reside in the United States (80%), up from 67% last year (FIGURE 1). Notable US increases included the West Coast at nearly 28%, up from 21%, and Northeast/New England/Mid-Atlantic at 21%, up from 16% in 2014. Europe made up 8% of the respondents. Fewer than 1% of responses came from China this year, compared to 5.6% last year; perhaps the Great Firewall of China is responsible.

FIGURE 1. Respondents by location. (n = 499)

Technology trends and projects were steady, with dips in single- and double-sided boards and increases in most higher-layer-count and rigid-flex substrates. Oddly, BGAs and FPGAs both slipped, although CSPs and SoCs were up (TABLE 3). Again, this could be accounted for by the regional variances in respondents from year to year.

TABLE 3. Projects and Technology Trends

The number of designs produced each year is holding steady, with six to 10 new starts per year the most frequently (24%) chosen response. Just under 60% of designers produce 15 or fewer designs annually. Another 19% produce between 21 and 50 designs, and 7% produce more than 51. These percentages are nearly flat with 2014.

When asked how many circuit board designers a company has worldwide producing these boards, it appears a firm either has very many or very few: The top response was “more than 51” (16%), while the second highest response was “6 to 10” (14%). Another 13% of firms have only one designer, and almost 12% have four or five (FIGURE 2).

FIGURE 2. Number of designers per company. (n = 499)