When we asked respondents if their company has a hard time finding/hiring automationprofessionals, nearly 60% said “yes.” The job function that is hardest to fill, as identified by 61.9% of the respondents, is automation/control engineering. A distant second was instrumentation engineering (28.2%), followed by process engineering (17.1%).
There is nothing new here. We are in the middle of a skills shortage. By many estimates, we failed to train an entire generation of technical professionals. As the bar chart indicates, more than half (51%) of those surveyed said they will be retiring in the next 15 years.
There is a message here for employers. If you are paying less than the industry average, you could very likely lose your engineers. Based on data from automation techies, a recruiting and contract staffing company based in Minnesota, there is a high demand forautomation professionals, and high-quality candidates are hard to find. When companies do find good candidates, the candidates typically have multiple offers on the table. If your company employs high-quality professionals, pay them well, or you may lose them.
refer to:http://www.automation.com/factors-that-affect-your-salary-what-you-need-to-know