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In electronics, the success of areas like Shenzhen and the relative expense of engineering in the US has decimated non-defense industry. In 2002, there were 385,000 electrical engineers in the US. In 2014, there were only 300,000. (https://www.computerworld.com/article/2487847/what-stem-shor...) Why should foreign students expect to work in relatively expensive industries that are losing employees in the US?

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According to the BLS there were 324,600 electrical and electronics engineers in the US in 2016.

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/electri...

A bit of a decline but "decimated" is too strong a word for a decline from 385,000 to 324,600, and much of that is due to smartphones and tablets (and single-board computers like the Raspberry Pi) that reduced the need for custom electronics. For example: in the 90s I worked for a company that made a custom handheld device. Now that product is an app.

The rapidly increasing presence of electronics everywhere (cars, "intelligent" fridges, etc), should have caused a dramatic rise in the number of engineers, so I would say "decimated" is somewhat justified.

I used the word "decimated" because electronics are so integral to productivity that there should be an explanation for the missing growth from 385,000. The fact that there's a decline at all is a double whammy.

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