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February 2012 Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) Highlights:
|
Occupation | State with highest location quotient | Location quotient in state with highest location quotient | Employment in state with highest location quotient | State with highest employment | Employment in state with highest employment | Location quotient in state with highest employment |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aerospace engineers |
Washington | 3.9 | 6,460 | California | 19,460 | 2.3 |
Agricultural engineers |
North Dakota | 7.3 | 50 | Texas | 290 | 1.5 |
Biomedical engineers |
Massachusetts | 3.9 | 1,440 | California | 3,820 | 2.3 |
Chemical engineers |
Delaware | 7.9 | 710 | Texas | 5,030 | 2.2 |
Civil engineers |
Alaska | 2.5 | 1,510 | California | 36,120 | 1.3 |
Computer hardware engineers |
New Mexico | 3.8 | 1,570 | California | 17,780 | 2.4 |
Electrical engineers |
Alaska | 2.3 | 810 | California | 18,320 | 1.1 |
Electronics engineers, except computer |
Rhode Island | 2.3 | 1,080 | California | 27,170 | 1.8 |
Environmental engineers |
Wyoming | 3.1 | 330 | California | 6,080 | 1.1 |
Health and safety engineers, except mining safety engineers and inspectors |
Alaska | 2.6 | 150 | California | 2,360 | 0.9 |
Industrial engineers |
Michigan | 3.3 | 19,680 | Michigan | 19,680 | 3.3 |
Marine engineers and naval architects |
Virginia | 5.1 | 810 | Texas | 1,090 | 2.4 |
Materials engineers |
Washington | 2.6 | 1,220 | California | 2,520 | 1.0 |
Mechanical engineers |
Michigan | 4.4 | 30,260 | Michigan | 30,260 | 4.4 |
Mining and geological engineers, including mining safety engineers |
Wyoming | 16.7 | 220 | Colorado | 680 | 6.4 |
Nuclear engineers |
Tennessee | 4.0 | 1,520 | California | 3,180 | 1.6 |
Petroleum engineers |
Alaska | 15.2 | 1,040 | Texas | 15,510 | 6.9 |
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics |
Although the architecture and engineering group made up about 1.8 percent of overall U.S. employment, its share of total employment varied by state from about 1 percent in Arkansas, South Dakota, and Nebraska to nearly 3 percent in Michigan, Alaska, and Washington. Employment shares of detailed architecture and engineering occupations varied more by state, as shown by the location quotient data in table 1. Location quotients are defined as the ratio of an occupation’s share of employment in a specific geographical area relative to its share of national employment; a location quotient greater than 1 indicates that the occupation makes up an above-average share of local employment. For example, an occupation that makes up 10 percent of local employment in a certain area, but only 2 percent of national employment, will have a location quotient of 5 in that area.
With the exception of industrial and mechanical engineers in Michigan, states with the highest employment of a given engineering occupation did not typically have the highest concentration of that occupation. For example, the employment share of health and safety engineers in Alaska was about 2.6 times the U.S. average, but this number represented only about 150 jobs. By comparison, the much larger state of California had nearly 16 times as many health and safety engineering jobs, despite a location quotient of only 0.9 for the occupation. In some cases, however, the state with the highest employment also had a high location quotient for that occupation. For example, Colorado had a location quotient of 6.4 for mining and geological engineers, and Texas had a location quotient of nearly 7 for petroleum engineers. However, these quotients were significantly lower than the location quotients for mining and geological engineers in Wyoming (16.7) and petroleum engineers in Alaska (15.2). These two location quotients were among the highest for any architecture and engineering occupation.
The architecture and engineering occupations with the highest location quotients in Michigan, Alaska, and Washington are shown in chart 4. Architecture and engineering occupations that made up an above-average share of employment in Michigan tended to be associated with manufacturing processes. Among these occupations were mechanical engineers and mechanical engineering technicians, industrial engineers and industrial engineering technicians, and mechanical drafters. The largest two were mechanical engineers and industrial engineers, with state employment of 30,260 and 19,680, respectively. Alaska had high concentrations of occupations associated with natural resource extraction; among these occupations were petroleum engineers, mining and geological engineers, environmental engineers, and occupations associated with geographical surveying and mapping, such as cartographers and photogrammetrists (not shown in the chart). Architecture and engineering occupations with the highest location quotients in Washington included several associated with aerospace equipment and marine vessels, as well as nuclear engineers and landscape architects.
The employment share of architecture and engineering occupations varied even more by local area than by state. Metropolitan areas with the lowest shares of architecture and engineering occupations—less than 0.5 percent of employment—included Merced, CA; Vineland–Millville–Bridgeton, NJ; Visalia–Porterville, CA; and Punta Gorda, FL. At the other end of the spectrum, architecture and engineering occupations made up nearly 9 percent of employment in Huntsville, AL; nearly 7 percent of employment in Kokomo, IN; and about 6 percent of employment in San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara, CA; Kennewick–Pasco–Richland, WA; and Palm Bay–Melbourne–Titusville, FL.
Architecture and engineering occupations with the highest location quotients in the Huntsville, Kokomo, and San Jose areas are shown in chart 5. Aerospace engineers had both the highest location quotient (22.6) and highest employment (2,830) of any architecture and engineering occupation in Huntsville. Other architecture and engineering occupations with high location quotients in this area included computer hardware engineers and aerospace engineering and operations technicians. Like Michigan, Kokomo, IN, had high concentrations of several occupations associated with manufacturing, including industrial engineers, materials engineers, and mechanical engineers. San Jose had both the highest employment (7,990) and highest location quotient (17.7) of any area for computer hardware engineers. Other engineering occupations with above-average concentrations in San Jose were electronics engineers, except computer; biomedical engineers; aerospace engineering and operations technicians; and electrical engineers.
San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara was also one of the highest paying areas overall for architecture and engineering occupations, with an annual mean wage of $100,750, more than $25,000 above the U.S. average for this group. Chart 6 shows mean wages for architecture and engineering occupations, along with the difference from the U.S. average for this group, for other high- and low-paying metropolitan areas.
In general, the lowest paying areas for architecture and engineering occupations tended to be smaller metropolitan areas with below-average concentrations of these occupations. For example, the low-paying areas shown in chart 6 had overall employment ranging from 16,960 in Palm Coast, FL, to 123,680 in Brownsville–Harlingen, TX; of the areas shown, only College Station–Bryan, TX, had an above-average share of architecture and engineering jobs. The picture is more mixed for the highest paying areas. Some, such as San Jose or the Washington, DC, metropolitan division, were large metropolitan areas that were more likely to have above-average wages in general. Others, including Midland, TX, with overall employment of 64,210, were smaller areas. However, in general, areas with higher concentrations of architecture and engineering occupations also had higher wages for this group.
Within a given metropolitan area, average wages for the architecture and engineering group were affected by both the wages for individual occupations and the relative shares of high- and low-paying occupations within the group. San Jose, for example, had above-average wages for nearly all of the area’s architecture and engineering occupations for which wage estimates were available. In many cases, the differences were large; for instance, the mean wage for biomedical engineers in San Jose was $30,780 higher than the U.S. average for the occupation, and the mean wage for chemical engineers was $27,250 higher than average. In contrast, most architecture and engineering occupations in Midland, TX, had wages below or similar to their respective U.S. averages, but nearly 46 percent of Midland’s architecture and engineering employment consisted of petroleum engineers, typically one of the highest paying occupations in the group.
Data profiles of architecture and engineering occupations are available from the OES occupational profiles page. Complete Occupational Employment Statistics data for May 2010 are available from the OES home page. This highlight was prepared by Audrey Watson. For more information, please contact the OES program.
Last Modified Date: February 8, 2012