Why is there a shortage of engineers?

There seems to be a shortage of engineers now. I believe there are a few reasons.

First of all, engineering course is very tough by nature, as tough as most secondary students find Science and Maths. Many tend to shy away from this course if other easier choices are available.

Secondly, engineering course is demographically dominated by males, most females would tend not to opt for it unless engineering is in their genes or they have a natural inclination towards technical things.

Thirdly, though tough to study, engineering course provides solid grounding education that makes its students versatile in their future career development. Engineering graduates can take on many different career options by choice or by circumstance such as recession.

Lastly, engineering graduates seem to lose advantage in terms of recognition and remuneration as compared to their counterparts in sales and marketing or administration and finance because technical people usually lack good communications and interpersonal skills. Hence, they tend to be ''invisible'' to their superiors.