May 2014

PE REPORT
2014 Engineering Grads Lead Peers In Salary Offers

New engineering graduates continue to command some of the highest starting salary offers as they enter the work world.

The average starting salary offer for engineering majors is $62,719 followed by $61,741 for computer science majors and $53,901 for business majors, according to a National Association of Colleges and Employers report. However, the average salary for engineering majors saw very little growth from last year with only a 0.3% increase.

The top-paid engineering major remained petroleum engineering with an average starting salary of $95,300, a 1.9% increase. Industrial and manufacturing engineering majors had the highest increase, 9.1%, for an average starting salary of $61,400.

The industries that offered the highest starting salaries to bachelor’s degree recipients regardless of major are mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction ($97,200); utilities ($68,700); construction ($58,883); management of companies and enterprises ($57,380); and manufacturing ($56,841).

The five industries with the highest number of new graduate hires are educational services (463,500); health care and social assistance (296,000); professional, scientific, and technical services (255,400); federal, state, and local governments (200,000); and finance and insurance (92,100).

Access the April 2014 NACE Salary Survey at www.naceweb.org.