Job market

The market is crowded at the entry level and fine in the long run. More people apply to every posting, there are fewer postings for new graduates, and the demand for electrical engineers over the next decade is still growing. That mix changes how you apply, not whether the degree pays. Aim at a person, not a pile.

The entry-level market in four numbers

Four numbers. Applications per job on Greenhouse rose 102 percent from the third quarter of 2022 to the fourth quarter of 2024. Job postings on Handshake fell 15 percent over the year to spring 2025. Tech postings on Indeed in July 2025 were 36 percent below early 2020. The BLS projects 8 percent growth for electrical and electronics engineers from 2025 to 2035.

1. +102%

   applications per job on Greenhouse, Q3 2022 to Q4 2024

2. −15%

   job postings on Handshake over the year to spring 2025

3. −36%

   tech postings on Indeed, July 2025 against early 2020

4. 8%

   growth the BLS projects for electrical and electronics engineers, 2025–2035

More applications chase fewer postings, and the long-run demand for the job is still there. Sources: Greenhouse (opens in a new tab), Handshake's class of 2025 report (opens in a new tab), Indeed Hiring Lab (opens in a new tab), and the BLS (opens in a new tab).

More applications per posting

Greenhouse, which runs hiring for thousands of employers, said in June 2025 that applications per job on its platform had risen 102 percent since ChatGPT's release (opens in a new tab). Workday counted 173 million applications for 19 million requisitions in the first half of 2024 (opens in a new tab), with applications growing four times faster than openings. Ashby's data on 38 million applications (opens in a new tab) shows where that leaves the person who applies online: the offer rate for inbound applicants fell from 7 in 1,000 to 2 in 1,000 between 2021 and 2024.

A pile that size is why the referral and the career fair come first. The networking page has the numbers for both.

Fewer postings for new graduates

Handshake's class of 2025 report said job postings on its platform were down 15 percent over the past year, while applications per job had risen 30 percent (opens in a new tab). The average student had sent 16.5 applications on Handshake by late April 2025, 21 percent more than the class of 2024 (opens in a new tab). Indeed's tech talent report put tech postings in July 2025 at 36 percent below early 2020 (opens in a new tab). Indeed Hiring Lab found that bachelor's graduates creating or updating Indeed profiles in their graduation year rose 67 percent from 2023 to 2025 (opens in a new tab). The same report puts the unemployment rate for recent graduates at 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2025, a three-year high.

Those are tech-wide figures. Hardware is a smaller slice of them, and the hardware postings follow their own calendar. The recruiting calendar section on the first internship page and the recruiting timeline section on the first full-time role page have the months.

Still, the degree holds

The BLS projects 8 percent growth for electrical and electronics engineers from 2025 to 2035, with about 16,300 openings a year over the decade (opens in a new tab). NACE's 2026 student survey found that more than two in five bachelor's graduates had at least one job offer before graduation (opens in a new tab), and the class averaged 0.79 offers per graduate. The class of 2025 started its search 6.4 months before graduation (opens in a new tab), earlier than the class before it.

As of November 2026, hiring is picking up. In NACE's Job Outlook 2026 Spring Update, employers planned to hire 5.6 percent more graduates from the class of 2026 (opens in a new tab), with engineering services among the industries planning increases. The Semiconductor Industry Association projects nearly 115,000 new chip industry jobs by 2030 (opens in a new tab), and estimates that about 67,000 of them risk going unfilled at current degree completion rates. A November 2026 Semiconductor Engineering panel saw no drop in demand for EE graduates (opens in a new tab), though AI agents now do many tasks that used to go to junior engineers. To see how your own major is doing, the New York Fed tracks unemployment, underemployment, and pay for recent graduates by major (opens in a new tab).

The pay section on the resources page has the pay data. The BLS median covers every career stage, so do not expect it in a first offer.

What students see

One student saw many summer 2027 internship posts and only a few 2027 new-graduate posts in August 2026 (opens in a new tab), and commenters told them to wait for the fall. A new graduate asking how hard the search is got the answer that it often comes down to finding a company that needs a Level 1 engineer (opens in a new tab), and that quality, test, and manufacturing titles raise the odds. The application counts students post are in the section on what students report on the job boards page.

What to do about it

1. Get a referral before you apply. It is the one input that moves the 2 in 1,000.
2. Apply within two weeks of a posting. The section on where to look on the getting hired page has why.
3. After about 20 quiet applications, reevaluate the resume, the channel, and the roles you target. Then keep going.
4. Search the test, validation, and manufacturing titles. The section on test or technician roles as a way in on the hardware page has the list.
5. Keep the second wave in view. Spring hiring exists, and so do roles that open after graduation. The section on what to do if nothing lands by graduation on the first full-time role page has that plan.

Why reevaluate at 20

The numbers above are why the rule of 20 exists. It is a rule of thumb from experience, not a measured cutoff. Treat a quiet channel as a sign to reevaluate the resume, the channel, and the targeting, then keep applying. In theory every resume is tailored to the job. That is unrealistic over dozens of applications, so keep one version per field you apply to, and adjust it for each posting.