[CasearianDaoist]

No, I do not question the accuracy of the figure, I question its meaning. Just because it is per capita does not mean that they do not have more engineers. All other things being equal it is the critical mass.

[ninenot]

Obviously, in absolute numbers, (even subracting the fake degrees) India/China have more hanging around.

So what?

If the question is "skills available in the USA" the answer is YUP, they are here. Trust me, it doesn't require an MS in CompSci to write application code--and in most cases, it doesn't require a BS, either.

A good designer has to understand the BUSINESS side as well as the TECHNICAL side, meaning that they are less populous--in ANY country. But a good application coder should work closely with the designer (and the user group, if necessary) to make the code useful for a long time to come.