New York
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.
New York at China’s rate would graduate 42,106 engineers a year. It graduates 15,085.
New York produces 15,085 engineering and computer science bachelor's degrees a year out of 126,826 total, a mid-pack engineering producer, from 98 institutions. At China's rate it would produce 42,106. Output is growing (+6.6% over three years). Gap Score: 36% of the China benchmark. Its own economy is projected to open 21,720 engineering, computing and technician jobs a year through 2034; in-state degrees, associate and bachelor's together, cover 81% of them.
The gap against China’s benchmark
Three-year trend: eng+CS share of degrees
New York is missing 27,022 engineers a year at China's rate, roughly 22x the annual output of Cornell University.
Where New York’s engineers are made.
98 institutions produce engineering or computer science bachelor’s degrees in New York. The top 8 account for 47% of output.
Every producing institution. Circle area = eng+CS bachelor’s degrees per year
Top producers
| # | Institution | Eng+CS / yr | % of its degrees |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cornell University | 1,250 | 31.6% |
| 2 | Rochester Institute of Technology | 1,187 | 46.7% |
| 3 | University at Buffalo | 996 | 20.7% |
| 4 | New York University | 970 | 12.9% |
| 5 | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | 838 | 64.6% |
| 6 | Columbia University in the City of New York | 699 | 28.5% |
| 7 | Stony Brook University | 699 | 15.4% |
| 8 | Binghamton University | 482 | 13.0% |
Jobs vs. degrees
New York'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
Where the openings are
| Occupation | Openings / yr |
|---|---|
| Software Developers | 5,960 |
| Computer User Support Specialists | 2,290 |
| Computer Systems Analysts | 1,340 |
| Civil Engineers | 1,040 |
| Web and Digital Interface Designers | 960 |
| Network and Computer Systems Administrators | 820 |
Coverage: degrees ÷ openings
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: New York labor-market projections via Projections Central (U.S. Dept. of Labor).
New York committed $117 billion to chips, and its share still trails the nation
Albany has backed the largest chip projects in the country: Micron's $100B Clay megafab with $5.5B in Green CHIPS credits, GlobalFoundries' $16B Malta build-out, and a $1B state-owned High NA EUV center at Albany NanoTech. It then paused hyperscale data centers to save grid capacity for them. The state's engineering and CS share, 11.9%, still trails the national 12.3%.
The drain.
New York keeps most of its public-university graduates but keeps losing its young: the 18-34 population fell while the nation's grew, and domestic out-migration topped 137,000 in a single year, so the state's chip projects depend on retaining a cohort that is already leaving.
Sources: Office of the NY State Comptroller; Empire Center for Public Policy; Rockefeller Institute of Government via Jamestown Post-Journal
Who’s covering it.
Reporters already cover this, but no one has combined it into a single number the way the Index does.
The fix, in New York.
Tie Green CHIPS to seats
Micron's $5.5B and GlobalFoundries' $575M in Green CHIPS credits are performance-based but pay out on capital and job counts regardless of who fills the jobs. Condition each tranche on funded Digital ROTC service-for-tuition seats at OCC, Jefferson CC and Hudson Valley CC, so the 9,000 Clay jobs and 1,508 Malta jobs are staffed by New Yorkers trained in-state.
Scale the Fort Drum model statewide
JCC's Micron-funded mechatronics program reserves half its seats for soldiers leaving Fort Drum, where only ~100 of ~300 monthly transitions stay local. Digital ROTC would extend that model: tuition at any SUNY community college in exchange for a service commitment at Clay, Malta or Albany NanoTech, turning the 14% associate share of NY's eng+CS output into a retention pipeline.
Pay grads to stay
With 137,000 net domestic out-migrants in one year and an 18-34 cohort shrinking while the nation's grows, New York should attach a retention bond to its $1B EUV center and $500M Empire AI: Digital ROTC tuition forgiveness that vests only after four years of engineering work in New York, holding SUNY's 70% five-year retention rate as the minimum.
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 New York, 14% of engineering-track credentials are associate degrees today. Digital ROTC is built to expand that community-college route.