Idaho

3,181

engineers a year
at China’s rate

Source: IPEDS Completions, 3-yr avg AY 2022–25 (NCES; 2024–25 provisional), bachelor’s degrees, CIP 14 + 11; China 33.2%: PRC Ministry of Education, 2022 bachelor’s graduates by discipline (NSF NCSES S&E Indicators Fig. HED-30: 32.8%, 2020); Population: Census NST-EST2025.

← #29 North Carolina#30 of 51#31 Missouri →

Idaho at China’s rate would graduate 4,707 engineers a year. It graduates 1,525.

Idaho produces 1,525 engineering and computer science bachelor's degrees a year out of 14,177 total, a mid-pack engineering producer, from 7 institutions. At China's rate it would produce 4,707. Output is growing (+22.0% over three years). Gap Score: 32% of the China benchmark. Its own economy is projected to open 2,570 engineering, computing and technician jobs a year through 2034; in-state degrees, associate and bachelor's together, cover 76% of them.

Engineering + CS share of bachelor’s degrees

10.8%

Below the national 12.3%; 32% of the way to China’s 33.2%.

Missing engineers a year at China’s rate

3,181

2,019 at a conservative 25%, and 1,310 at 20%.

Three-year trend, share of degrees

10.110.411.8

Output up 22.0% in degrees, 2022-23 to 2024-25.

National rank by share

#30

of 51 by share; #45 per capita, 157 missing engineers per 100k residents (pop. 2.0M).

What they study

32% eng

68% computer science. 22% of the state’s eng+CS output is at the associate level, the two-year pathway.

Job openings a year, engineers + computing + technicians

2,570

76% covered by the state’s own degrees, all levels; #10 of 51 on coverage.

The gap against China’s benchmark

Idaho, today10.8%

United States, today12.3%

China benchmark33.2%

3,181 missing engineering and CS bachelor’s degrees a year at China’s 33.2% rate.

Three-year trend: eng+CS share of degrees

2022–232023–242024–25

Idaho is missing 3,181 engineers a year at China's rate, roughly 4x the annual output of Brigham Young University-Idaho.

Where Idaho’s engineers are made.

7 institutions produce engineering or computer science bachelor’s degrees in Idaho. The top 7 account for 100% of output.

Every producing institution. Circle area = eng+CS bachelor’s degrees per year

Brigham Young University-Idaho alone is 58% of the state's output.Swipe the map →

Top producers

#	Institution	Eng+CS / yr	% of its degrees
1	Brigham Young University-Idaho	877	13.9%
2	Boise State University	343	8.6%
3	University of Idaho	191	12.7%
4	Idaho State University	67	5.7%
5	Northwest Nazarene University	25	9.8%
6	Lewis-Clark State College	15	2.7%
7	The College of Idaho	6	2.5%

These 7 institutions are the state's entire eng+CS output. Bachelor's degrees, matching the state totals above. IPEDS Completions C2023–C2025, first majors; 3-yr average.

Jobs vs. degrees

Idaho's own labor-market projection, 2024–2034, for engineers, computer occupations and engineering technicians, against the degrees the state produces at every level.

Openings against output

Job openings per year (growth + replacement)2,570

Eng + CS degrees produced per year (associate + bachelor’s)1,964

of which net new jobs per year (growth only)486

Where the openings are

Occupation	Openings / yr
Software Developers	460
Civil Engineers	200
Computer User Support Specialists	200
Industrial Engineers	160
Computer Systems Analysts	120
Architectural and Civil Drafters	110

Coverage: degrees ÷ openings

76%

of Idaho's projected openings are covered by its own degrees. Rank #10 of 51; U.S.: 54%. Demand: 127 openings per 100k residents (U.S.: 143).

Idaho's colleges cover 76% of the engineering, computing and technician jobs its economy opens every year. The other 606 a year, about half the annual output of Brigham Young University-Idaho, must be imported, retrained, or left unfilled.

Openings are the state labor agency’s own 10-year projection: new jobs plus replacing workers who retire or leave the field (BLS method). Not every opening goes to a new graduate, so this is a coverage measure; it does not count vacant positions. Occupations: engineers (SOC 17-2), computer occupations (SOC 15-12) and engineering technicians (SOC 17-3, the associate-degree tier), the jobs CIP 14 + 11 degrees feed; degrees here include associate degrees to match. Source: Idaho labor-market projections via Projections Central (U.S. Dept. of Labor).

Idaho's chip and nuclear projects need more engineers than it graduates

Idaho has drawn a $45 billion Micron fab campus, a nuclear buildout anchored at Idaho National Laboratory, and hyperscale data centers. The state produces about 1,500 engineering and CS bachelor's degrees a year to feed all of it.

Micron ID1 and ID2 fabs, Boise

$45B

Micron is building a $15 billion memory fab in southeast Boise with first DRAM wafers due in mid-2027 and the second fab's initial output in late 2028, and in June 2025 announced a $30 billion second Boise fab as part of a $200 billion national expansion. The company gets up to $6.4 billion in CHIPS Act direct funding across its Idaho, New York and Virginia projects, and the two Idaho fabs are projected to support roughly 17,000 jobs. Idaho's entire congressional delegation voted against the CHIPS Act.

Idaho Capital Sun; BoiseDev; Idaho Business Review; Micron; KIVI

Idaho National Laboratory nuclear buildout, Idaho Falls

~6,000 employees

INL grew from about 4,000 to roughly 6,000 employees in seven years, hiring 700 to 1,000 people a year, as it permits and builds new reactors for the first time in 50 years. An NRC commissioner told the governors of Idaho and Utah that workforce, 'both for trade and scientists and engineers,' is the highest hurdle to the nuclear buildout. In July 2026 DOE named Idaho one of five finalist states for a Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus promising thousands of jobs.

Idaho Capital Sun

Meta data center, Kuna

~$1B

Meta's 960,000 square foot Kuna data center, an investment of about $1 billion, was slated for completion in 2025 after an eight-month pause to redesign it for AI. It brings roughly 100 full-time Meta jobs plus a ~$100 million water treatment facility handed to the city, a reminder that data centers deliver more construction work than permanent engineering payroll.

Idaho Business Review

The drain.

Idaho keeps most of its homegrown graduates but loses most of the students it imports, and the state's own analysis says the Idaho LAUNCH grant is what finally tilted enrollment back in state.

Resident grads working in Idaho, year one

77%

falling to 67% by year four, per the Idaho Dept. of Labor and State Board of Education longitudinal retention analysis

Nonresident grads who stay

39%

one year after graduation, dropping to 28% by year four, in the same Idaho Dept. of Labor analysis

In-state enrollment after Idaho LAUNCH

+11%

with out-of-state enrollment down 12% and 75% of grads employed in Idaho a year out, per the governor's office, Jan 2026

Sources: Idaho Department of Labor / Idaho State Board of Education SLDS retention analysis; Idaho Governor's Office (2026)

Who’s covering it.

Reporters already cover this, but no one has combined it into a single number the way the Index does.

OutletStoryWhat it covers

BoiseDev

Micron announces second Boise fab

Jun 2025. Breaks down the $30 billion second Boise fab within Micron's $200 billion plan and notes Commerce's 90,000-job estimate, the hiring demand now facing Idaho's engineering programs.

Idaho Capital Sun

US Labor secretary visits Micron to praise new apprenticeship program, Idaho Launch

Aug 2025. Micron's first earn-while-you-learn apprentice class numbered just five graduates, with 22 in the next cohort, a small number against a $45 billion fab campus.

Idaho Capital Sun

Idaho National Laboratory director says state must focus on workforce and education

Sep 2025. INL's director floats a western 'nuclear power school' and an NRC commissioner calls workforce the highest hurdle to the nuclear renaissance.

Idaho Capital Sun

Idaho selected as potential host site for new DOE Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus

Jul 2026. DOE names Idaho one of five finalists for a fuel-cycle campus promising thousands of high-paying jobs, another project that would draw on the same supply of engineers.

Idaho Business Review

Micron to add second facility to expansion project in Boise

Jun 2025. Business-press view of the expansion, including the $6.4 billion CHIPS award and 90,000-job estimate behind Boise's two fabs.

Idaho Business Review

Meta's mega data center in Kuna on track to be completed by 2025

Oct 2024. The ~$1 billion, 960,000 square foot Kuna build lands about 100 permanent Meta jobs, showing how thin the engineering payroll behind data-center megaprojects can be.

The fix, in Idaho.

Add service years to LAUNCH

Idaho LAUNCH already pays up to $8,000 toward training for careers the Idaho Workforce Development Council deems in demand, and the state credits it with an 11% jump in in-state enrollment. A Digital ROTC tier would trade a larger award at CWI, CSI and College of Eastern Idaho for a committed service period at Micron, INL or Idaho utilities, turning a grant legislators have criticized into a contract with a guaranteed return.

Scale Micron's apprenticeship pipeline

Micron's first registered-apprentice cohort graduated five people against a $45 billion two-fab campus needing thousands of technicians and engineers by 2027. Tie any future state incentive or infrastructure support to enrolling hundreds per year through Idaho's community colleges on a service-for-tuition basis, with Micron covering the balance as it already does.

Build the nuclear power school

INL's director has publicly proposed a Navy-style nuclear power school in the West using College of Eastern Idaho, Idaho State, Boise State and University of Idaho. Digital ROTC is the funding mechanic: full tuition at those institutions in exchange for service years at INL or the reactor startups building on its desert site, locking graduates into Idaho during the exact years the lab hires hundreds annually.

What Digital ROTC would fund

Digital ROTC: federal student loans that cover two years of engineering, computer science, or cybersecurity school at a community college, whether those years end in an associate degree or transfer into a bachelor’s program. The loans are forgiven in full after 24 to 36 months of service in government technology roles. In Idaho, 22% of engineering-track credentials are associate degrees today. Digital ROTC is built to expand that community-college route.

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