Wisconsin

7,149

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.

← #19 Texas#20 of 51#21 Alabama →

Wisconsin at China’s rate would graduate 11,216 engineers a year. It graduates 4,068.

Wisconsin produces 4,068 engineering and computer science bachelor's degrees a year out of 33,784 total, a mid-pack engineering producer, from 28 institutions. At China's rate it would produce 11,216. Output is growing (+0.2% over three years). Gap Score: 36% of the China benchmark. Its own economy is projected to open 8,190 engineering, computing and technician jobs a year through 2034; in-state degrees, associate and bachelor's together, cover 61% of them.

Engineering + CS share of bachelor’s degrees

12.0%

Below the national 12.3%; 36% of the way to China’s 33.2%.

Missing engineers a year at China’s rate

7,149

4,378 at a conservative 25%, and 2,689 at 20%.

Three-year trend, share of degrees

11.912.112.1

Output up 0.2% in degrees, 2022-23 to 2024-25.

National rank by share

#20

of 51 by share; #28 per capita, 120 missing engineers per 100k residents (pop. 6.0M).

What they study

47% eng

53% computer science. 19% of the state’s eng+CS output is at the associate level, the two-year pathway.

Job openings a year, engineers + computing + technicians

8,190

61% covered by the state’s own degrees, all levels; #21 of 51 on coverage.

The gap against China’s benchmark

Wisconsin, today12.0%

United States, today12.3%

China benchmark33.2%

7,149 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

Wisconsin is missing 7,149 engineers a year at China's rate, roughly 4x the annual output of University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Where Wisconsin’s engineers are made.

28 institutions produce engineering or computer science bachelor’s degrees in Wisconsin. The top 8 account for 90% of output.

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

University of Wisconsin-Madison alone is 41% of the state's output.Swipe the map →

Top producers

#	Institution	Eng+CS / yr	% of its degrees
1	University of Wisconsin-Madison	1,652	19.3%
2	University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee	461	14.1%
3	Milwaukee School of Engineering	418	76.0%
4	University of Wisconsin-Platteville	413	34.5%
5	University of Wisconsin-Stout	296	23.2%
6	Marquette University	250	15.1%
7	University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire	87	4.4%
8	University of Wisconsin-Green Bay	77	6.1%

Top 8 shown = 90% of state output. 20 more institutions produce the remaining 10%, all shown on the map. Bachelor's degrees, matching the state totals above. IPEDS Completions C2023–C2025, first majors; 3-yr average.

Jobs vs. degrees

Wisconsin'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)8,190

Eng + CS degrees produced per year (associate + bachelor’s)4,998

of which net new jobs per year (growth only)737

Where the openings are

Occupation	Openings / yr
Software Developers	1,480
Industrial Engineers	920
Computer User Support Specialists	780
Computer Systems Analysts	510
Mechanical Engineers	510
Civil Engineers	460

Coverage: degrees ÷ openings

61%

of Wisconsin's projected openings are covered by its own degrees. Rank #21 of 51; U.S.: 54%. Demand: 137 openings per 100k residents (U.S.: 143).

Wisconsin's colleges cover 61% of the engineering, computing and technician jobs its economy opens every year. The other 3,192 a year, 2x the annual output of University of Wisconsin-Madison, 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: Wisconsin labor-market projections via Projections Central (U.S. Dept. of Labor).

After Foxconn, Wisconsin turned its incentives to data centers

Wisconsin wrote off most of a $3B Foxconn deal, then handed hyperscale data centers a sales tax exemption worth $2B-plus, took a $3B Eli Lilly plant in Kenosha County, and watched a Navy frigate program stall in Marinette for lack of workers. Its engineering output has been flat over the same three years.

Microsoft Fairwater, Mount Pleasant

$3.3B

Microsoft's $3.3B AI campus sits on the Foxconn site, where the state offered up to $2.85B in credits for 13,000 promised jobs and verified 1,029 through 2022. Microsoft had nearly 550 full-time staff on site by June 2026, ~800 expected once a second facility opens in 2028, with openings posted at ~$75,000 to $200,000-plus. Wisconsin Watch put the state's data center sales tax break at $1.5B forgone during construction plus $369M a year after.

Urban Milwaukee; Milwaukee Magazine; Wisconsin Watch; BizTimes

Vantage / OpenAI / Oracle Lighthouse, Port Washington

$15B

The Stargate campus grew from an $8B to a $15B plan with four buildings, 4,000-plus construction jobs and roughly 1,030 permanent jobs (700 OpenAI/Oracle, 330 Vantage) by 2028, backed by a $458M tax incremental district and a 1.3 GW power draw; in April 2026 Port Washington voters required referendums on future large TIFs, though the change does not touch this one. Wisconsin Watch found a typical data center runs on ~50 full-time staff and technicians earn $23 to $48 an hour, so the engineering payoff is thin relative to the subsidy.

WPR; Wisconsin Watch

Fincantieri Marinette Marine, Marinette

4 of 6 ships cut

The Constellation frigate slid from a 2026 delivery to 2029 as the Navy redesigned 85% of the ship and the yard, with 2,175 workers, could staff only about one frigate a year; $100M in Navy money funded retention bonuses up to $10,000. In late November 2025 the Navy cancelled four of six ordered frigates, stranding an $800M shipyard upgrade and a program once worth $5.5B.

WPR; PBS Wisconsin

The drain.

Wisconsin keeps the in-state kids it educates but loses its most credentialed natives to Minnesota and beyond, and the Wisconsin Policy Forum now ranks its net brain drain second worst in the nation.

Net brain drain rank, degree gap between leavers and arrivals

#2 worst

59.8% of Wisconsin-born 31-40s living elsewhere hold a bachelor's vs 45.2% of arrivals, a 14.6-pt gap, Wisconsin Policy Forum, Aug 2026

In-state UW grads still in Wisconsin 5 yrs out

87%

vs 16% of out-of-state grads, Universities of Wisconsin data via PolitiFact Wisconsin, 2024

Wisconsin leavers headed to Minnesota

17.8%

Minnesota sends back 0.56 degreed workers per one it takes, Wisconsin Policy Forum, Aug 2026

Sources: Wisconsin Policy Forum; Universities of Wisconsin; PolitiFact Wisconsin; WPR

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

WPR

Wisconsin has second-largest 'brain drain' in the country despite high education attainment

Aug 2026. Covers the Policy Forum finding that 60% of Wisconsin natives who left hold degrees vs 45% of arrivals, and MMAC's admission it thinks about brain drain weekly.

Wisconsin Watch

Wisconsin data center tax break to cost state more than $2 billion

Apr 2026. Prices the 2023 sales tax exemption at $1.5B during construction plus $369M a year, money not tied to any engineering pipeline.

Urban Milwaukee

Microsoft Says 375 Workers Hired for Mount Pleasant Data Center

May 2026. Reports 375 hires, 125 more coming and ~800 at build-out, with openings from $75,000 to $200,000-plus, the clearest count yet of who actually staffs the flagship project.

Wisconsin Watch

Here's what the data center boom means for Wisconsin's workforce

Mar 2026. Explains that a typical data center runs on ~50 staff and that Gateway Technical College's Data Center Academy is the main local training program.

WPR

'No one necessarily knows what it means': Navy cancels ships planned in Marinette

Dec 2025. The Navy cut four of six frigates after a three-year slip driven partly by workforce shortages at a 2,175-worker yard.

WPR

Evers, campus leaders break ground on UW-Madison engineering building after years of political conflict

Apr 2025. The $419M Levy Engineering Center, held up two years by a DEI fight, will add capacity for 1,000 engineering students a year when it opens in 2028.

The fix, in Wisconsin.

Tie the data center tax break to grads

Wisconsin is forgoing $2B-plus in sales tax for Microsoft, Vantage and Meta with no workforce condition attached. Condition the exemption on each campus sponsoring Digital ROTC seats at Gateway, MATC and Moraine Park, with service-for-tuition technicians and engineers committed to Wisconsin sites.

Fund service-for-tuition at the 16 tech colleges

Associate degrees are 19% of Wisconsin's eng+CS output and Marinette proved the shipbuilding pipeline runs through Northeast Wisconsin Technical College. A statewide Digital ROTC track that covers tuition in exchange for years of in-state service would staff the shipyard and plants faster than retention bonuses.

Keep the Levy Center's 1,000 new seats home

UW-Madison's $419M engineering building adds 1,000 students a year, but only 16% of out-of-state UW grads stay. Offer Digital ROTC service-for-tuition to out-of-state engineering students who commit to Wisconsin employers, to reduce a brain drain the Policy Forum ranks second worst in the nation.

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 Wisconsin, 19% of engineering-track credentials are associate degrees today. Digital ROTC is built to expand that community-college route.

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