Engineering Degrees Prove Lucrative

A recent article on Yahoo! HotJobs lists the best degrees to have if you want a lucrative career. I was pleased to see the Top 2 degrees/jobs were for folks in the chemical industry. According to a salary survey from the  National Association of Colleges and Employers, these are the Top 2 spots:

1. Major: Petroleum Engineering
Average Salary Offer: $86,220

2. Major: Chemical Engineering
Average Salary Offer: $65,142

In fact, engineering degrees across many disciplines made the list.

"While a variety of factors play a role in determining salaries, new graduates with degrees in the technical fields tend to benefit from their relatively low supply. There is more competition for their skills, driving up their salary offers," says Marilyn Mackes, NACE executive director.

To view the entire Top 10, read the Yahoo! HotJobs story.

If you want more in-depth coverage within the chemical industry, be sure to check out Chemical Processing's Salary Survey coverage from last year: Engineers Proceed With Caution. And as soon as I post the current Salary Survey coverage for 2010, I will let you know.

And by the way – how do you stack up against these salary numbers?

Traci Purdum
Senior Digital Editor