Engineering Degrees

Engineering is one of the most promising careers when it comes to potential for high earnings, projected job growth and job security. Not only are overall job prospects expected to be good between 2008 and 2018, but starting salaries for engineers are some of the highest of all college graduates, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. While those who choose other professions must work for many years to attain their desired income level, engineers are more likely to hit the ground running with a high income from the starting gate.

The average annual income differs greatly among the different branches of engineering. For instance, petroleum engineers average six figures a year, while agricultural engineers take home less than $69,000 on average each year. To give you a good idea of how much you could earn as an engineer, we will provide a list of some of the average annual salaries for engineers within the best-known specialties, from the highest-paid down, according to the Bureau.

• Petroleum engineers: $108,020
• Computer hardware engineers: $97,400
• Nuclear engineers: $97,080
• Aerospace engineers: $92,520
• All other engineers: $88,570
• Electronics engineers, non-computer: $86,370
• Chemical engineers: $84,680
• Electrical engineers: $82,160
• Materials engineers: $81,820
• Biomedical engineers: $77,400
• Mining/mining safety/geological engineers: $75,960
• Mechanical engineers: $74,920
• Civil engineers: $74,600
• Marine engineers/naval architects: $74,140
• Environmental engineers: $74,020
• Industrial engineers: $73,820
• Health & safety engineers, non-mining: $72,490
• Agricultural engineers: $68,730

While overall job growth for engineers is projected to be good, growing as fast as the average of all other occupations tracked by the government, some specialties of engineering are expected to boom between 2008 and 2018. While jobs for engineers overall are only supposed to grow by 11 percent between 2008 and 2018, biomedical engineers are projected to experience a whopping 72 percent job growth, according to the Bureau. Other in-demand jobs through 2018 will be in civil engineering (24 percent job growth expected) and environmental engineering (31 percent job growth expected).

Some engineers, however, such as computer hardware engineers, will face slow job growth due to U.S. companies outsourcing this sort of work to foreign countries, the Bureau warns. The surest way of staying employed in any engineering specialty is to stay on top of the advances of modern technology through continuing education, the Bureau recommends.