EMPLOYMENT STATUS OF ENGINEERS

Employment About this section

In 2008, engineers held about 1.6 million jobs. Following is the distribution of employment by engineering specialty:

Civil engineers	278,400
Mechanical engineers	238,700
Industrial engineers	214,800
Electrical engineers	157,800
Electronics engineers, except computer	143,700
Computer hardware engineers	74,700
Aerospace engineers	71,600
Environmental engineers	54,300
Chemical engineers	31,700
Health and safety engineers, except mining safety engineers and inspectors	25,700
Materials engineers	24,400
Petroleum engineers	21,900
Nuclear engineers	16,900
Biomedical engineers	16,000
Marine engineers and naval architects	8,500
Mining and geological engineers, including mining safety engineers	7,100
Agricultural engineers	2,700
Engineers, all other	183,200

About 36 percent of engineering jobs were found in manufacturing industries, and another 30 percent were in the professional, scientific, and technical services industries, primarily in architectural, engineering, and related services. Many engineers also worked in the construction, telecommunications, and wholesale trade industries.

Federal, State, and local governments employed about 12 percent of engineers in 2008. About 6 percent were in the Federal Government, mainly in the U.S. Departments of Defense, Transportation, Agriculture, Interior, and Energy, and in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Many engineers in State and local government agencies worked in highway and public works departments. In 2008, about 3 percent of engineers were self-employed, many as consultants.

Engineers are employed in every State, in small and large cities and in rural areas. Some branches of engineering are concentrated in particular industries and geographic areas; for example, petroleum engineering jobs tend to be located in States with sizable petroleum deposits, such as Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Alaska, and California. Other branches, such as civil engineering, are widely dispersed, and engineers in these fields often move from place to place to work on different projects.