For those of you who want to know the best states for mechanical engineers, we did our research and brought you just that.
Let’s first get familiar with the overall situation in the occupation in the United States. Statistics from Bureau of Labor tell us that there were 277,500 mechanical engineers employed across the nation in 2014. From 2014 to 2024 there is a projected growth of employment by 5% which means that there will be 14,600 newly employed within the occupation. The job outlook for mechanical engineers depends mostly on the industry they are employed in. Currently architectural, engineering, and related services employ the most mechanical engineers, while their highest concentration is in industrial machinery manufacturing. Those mechanical engineers that follow the latest technological advancements and are familiar with new software are more likely to be employed. Michigan employs the most mechanical engineers, followed by California and Texas.
When it comes to the financial benefit of being a mechanical engineer, on average they earn $84,190 aannually (median wage) or $40.48 per hour. The 10% of the lowest paid earned $54,420 while the 10% of highest paid earned $131,350 in 2016. This puts mechanical engineers on a similar earning track like industrial engineers. You can get familiar with this occupation more on our list of 25 Best States for Industrial Engineers.
You must be wondering how we managed to get our list of best states for mechanical engineers? Well, we decided that the best factors for determining the best states would be annual median wage (Bureau of Labor Statistics), projected job growth rates (Projections Central) and costs of living (Missouri Economy). We ranked the states on three separate rankings according to each of these factors and then combined the rankings into our IM Score. Keen to check it out?