In the past nine months, jobs in industry decreased by 24%, according to statistics compiled by Worldwideworker.com, a web-based recruiting firm specializing in engineering professionals. In the summer of 2001, 1,300 to 1,400 jobs were posted to the Worldwideworker.com site, the company reports. At the start of this year, only 1,000 jobs were posted to the company's site, an average decrease of about 350. However, the company's chief executive officer, Jan Scholten, said industry jobs recorded via the internet are continually growing, so the average amount of jobs posted might have increased since it was last recorded at the start of the year. Trends from the company's data show the average age for a professional industry worker in the western part of the world is 48 years-old. Statistics also show that not enough young workers are pursuing engineering degrees in industry in the West.
