The survey showed that 44% of those not choosing a career in engineering cited a lack of knowledge about the specific field and the overall industry as the reason they wouldn't select a job in IT.

"Clearly, there needs to be much more focus on math and science in schools. Children need to understand how math and science link directly to things that are important to their lives: like cell phones, the Internet, Facebook and healthcare. Then we need to figure out more creative ways to showcase math and science. We need more math majors and fewer drama majors if the U.S. is going to remain competitive in the 21st century," one reader said.

Another reader also pointed to shortcoming in the U.S. public school system as a cause for the waning interest in high-tech fields.

"Education is lacking. Getting through high school with good grades was much easier than slogging through [calculus 3] and [differential equations]," one said online. "The added distractions and complexity of 21st-century living certainly isn't helping focus time and concentration on core mathematics."

Others argue a successful career in engineering depends on the an individual acquires. Some with could fair worse during a downturn than others.