Globalization has delivered tremendous opportunities to the electronics industry over the past two decades, but for many engineers in Europe, North America and other developed regions, it has also brought a world of pain in terms of fewer job opportunities and lower wages, according to the EE Times Annual Salary & Opinion Survey.

As new technologies for mobile devices, the Internet and embedded systems, to name a few, have taken hold during this period, a corresponding growth in outsourcing of design and manufacturing functions to low-wage countries in the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America and Eastern Europe have undermined wages, cut job opportunities and left U.S.-based engineers disgruntled about their job prospects, according to the EE Times survey, conducted by Beacon Technology Partners, a marketing and research firm based in Maynard, Mass.

A key finding revealed by 1,158 respondents in North America is that American-born engineers, particularly those over 50 years old, are having a harder time adjusting to the effects of globalization. Many of them have been displaced by foreign-born Indian, Chinese and British counterparts, who have landed jobs at large corporations like Cisco, Dell, HP and IBM.

Income disparity is a key concern. The study revealed that North American-born engineers working in North America have median earnings of $107,000, while foreign-born engineers working in North America enjoy higher wages. Indian-born engineers reported an average salary of $114,000; engineers from China/Taiwan posted an average salary of $113,700, and those born in the United Kingdom earned $131,900.