The industry has been predicting a shortage of Engineers for the past 12 years, but for a variety of reasons it just has not happened - yet. The reasons for this are numurous but one of the main factors is the maintenance programmes for new aircraft i.e. A&C Checks need less manhours (MSG3 Maintenance Programmes and aircraft built with maintenance in mind = less manhours), plus the frequency/periodicity of the Checks are required less often compared to "Classic" types. This has masked the impending cliff edge and has probably lulled the industry into thinking "what shortage" (Crying Wolf too often). But it is heading our way very fast now.
Bizdev