Engineering Fundamentals: An Introduction to Engineering, 4th ed.c

1.3 Common Traits of Good Engineers 11

TABLE 1.1 Engineering Employment by Disciplines—Data from U.S. Bureau

of Labor Statistics

Total, All Engineers 1,572,100 100%

Civil 278,400 17.7

Mechanical 238,700 15.2

Industrial 214,800 13.7

Electrical 157,800 10.0

Electronics, except computer 143,700 9.1

Computer hardware 74,700 4.8

Aerospace 71,600 4.6

Environmental 54,300 3.5

Chemical 31,700 2.0

Health and safety, except mining safety 25,700 1.6

Materials 24,400 1.6

Petroleum 21,900 1.4

Nuclear 16,900 1.1

Biomedical 16,000 1.0

Marine engineers and naval architects 8,500 0.5

Mining and geological, including mining safety 7,100 0.5

Agricultural 2,700 0.2

All other engineers 183,200 11.7

These are some other facts about engineering that are worth noting.

• For almost all entry-level engineering jobs, a bachelor’s degree in engineering is required.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:

• The starting salaries of engineers are significantly higher than those of bachelor’s-degree grad-
  uates in other fields. The outlook for engineering is very good. Good employment
  opportunities are expected for new engineering graduates during 2010 – 2018.


• Most engineering degrees are granted in electrical, mechanical, and civil engineering, the
  parents of all other engineering branches.


• In the year 2008, engineers held 1.6 million jobs (see Table 1.1).

The distribution of employment by disciplines is shown in Table 1.1.

As mentioned previously, engineers earn some of the highest salaries among those holding

bachelor’s degrees. The average starting salary for engineers is shown in Table 1.2. The data

shown in Table 1.2 is the result of the July 2009 survey conducted by the National Association

of Colleges and Employers.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the Federal Government sector, mean

annual salaries for engineers ranged from $126,788 in ceramic engineering to $81,085 in agri-

cultural engineering in March 2009.

Source:Data from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

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