Engineering Grads Earn Top Salary Offers
ningcontentWhich new college graduates are faring best when it comes to salary in the current economy? According to a new report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), engineers are pulling down the highest starting salaries.
NACE’s Summer 2009 Salary Survey report shows that engineering disciplines account for four of the five disciplines getting the highest starting salary offers. (See Figure 1.)
“Many of the engineering disciplines benefit from an imbalance in the supply/demand ratio,” says Marilyn Mackes, NACE executive director. “Even in a tight job market, there are simply more opportunities requiring an engineering degree than graduates available to fill those positions. That drives salaries up.”
In fact, out of the more than 1,524,000 bachelor’s degrees awarded in 2007, just 450 were in petroleum engineering and only 4,492 were in chemical engineering.*
| Figure 1: Highest Starting Salaries, by Discipline | |
|---|---|
| Discipline | Average Starting Salary Offer |
| Petroleum engineering | $83,121 |
| Chemical engineering | $64,902 |
| Mining engineering | $64,404 |
| Computer engineering | $61,738 |
| Computer science | $61,407 |
Source: Summer 2009 Salary Survey, National Association of Colleges and Employers. Data are for bachelor’s degree level candidates and are reported for disciplines in which 30 or more offers have been received.
* Digest of Education Statistics 2008. National Center for Education Statistics. Most current data available.
Since 1956, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) has been the leading source of information about the employment of college graduates. NACE maintains a virtual press room for the media at www.naceweb.org/press/.
