One Decade Later, Engineering Jobs Still Dominate

ABC News on Campus reporter Brittny Krause blogs: With just a little more than a month left in the school year, many college seniors are scrambling to find a job. But a new report suggests that engineering majors will have a much easier time getting hired during these tough economic times.  The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) surveyed students earning bachelor’s degrees and compared their reported job offers and proposed salaries. What they found was that engineering majors dominated the top 10 highest-earning and most in-demand bachelor’s degrees. In NACE’s Winter 2010 Survey, which came out last month, engineering degrees accounted for eight of the 10 top-paid bachelor’s degrees. “Engineering majors have always dominated this list,” said NACE Director of Research Ed Koc. And according to Koc, this has been an ongoing trend for the past 10 years. But Koc says that only four percent of college students will graduate with some type of engineering degree, which is low compared to the approximately 24 percent of college students who graduate with some type of business degree every year, making engineering students rare and in demand. “Engineering students have a very specific set of technical skills which they obtain from their undergraduate schooling,” said Koc. “There is a lot more competition for their skills which in turn drives up their salary offers.” Petroleum engineering earned the top spot on the top-paid bachelor’s degrees list with an average starting salary of $86,220. That’s more than 1.5 times the average starting salary for bachelor’s degree graduates as a whole, which is $48,351. “When I came to the University of Florida I realized how many opportunities there were in the engineering field which helped me get through the tough times in school and ultimately helped me land a job,” said University of Florida senior and mechanical engineering major Brad Swartz, who last month secured a job as an energy engineer with a company in Orlando. Jill Urban, a Northern Arizona University senior and mechanical engineering major is also well aware of the high demand for engineering majors such as herself. But instead of taking a job offer, she is choosing to go to graduate school. “I am really interested in research and research in the engineering industry usually requires a higher degree,” said Urban. “If I took a job right out of college, it would be hard to receive a few years of a paycheck and then say goodbye to that paycheck to go back to graduate school.” But what about other popular majors such as education? Koc said that public paid jobs often have a set salary which is generally a lot less than the salary associated with in-demand degrees. And the same goes for majors in the health care field, like nursing. “We don’t see hospitals being directly involved with college recruiting, which plays a big role in finding which jobs are in-demand,” said Koc. The only non-engineering related degrees on the NACE top 10 list were computer science and information sciences and systems. “Computer science majors have been on the upswing because of the growth of information technology as a core business function,” Koc said. And the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics predicts that the fastest-growing category for jobs in the next 10  years will be management, scientific and technical consulting services, and all jobs that directly relate to computer sciences and information sciences and systems. The lowest-earning bachelor’s degree reported in NACE’s study was English with an average starting salary of $28,430. While English holds the lowest starting salary among bachelor’s degrees, it is not the least in-demand degree. According to NACE, journalism is the degree with the lowest offer rate and Koc says that is partly because of the print journalism industry, which has suffered over the past few years. While NACE’s quarterly report will change once spring graduation rolls around, Koc says the top-ten list should stay relatively the same. “This time of the year is still early and the final end of the year report in September will change a lot of things and be the most accurate survey. But for the most part the top-ten list should stay pretty close to the same,” says Koc. “Because of the high demand, engineers will continue to dominate the other bachelor’s degrees out there.” Top-Paid Bachelor's Degrees Source: Winter 2010 Salary Survey, National Association of Colleges
and Employers 1. Major: Petroleum Engineering
Average Salary Offer: $86,220 2. Major: Chemical Engineering
Average Salary Offer: $65,142 3. Major: Mining & Mineral Engineering (including Geological)
Average Salary Offer: $64,552 4. Major: Computer Science
Average Salary Offer: $61,205 5. Major: Computer Engineering
Average Salary Offer: $60,879 6. Major: Electrical/Electronics & Communications Engineering
Average Salary Offer: $59,074 7. Major: Mechanical Engineering
Average Salary Offer: $58,392 8. Major: Industrial/Manufacturing Engineering
Average Salary Offer: $57,734 9. Major: Aerospace/Aeronautical/Astronautical Engineering
Average Salary Offer: $57,231 10. Major: Information Sciences & Systems
Average Salary Offer: $54,038