Would you like to work as a mechanical engineer? Then stick with me while I reveal the most important facts about mechanical engineering and give you the list of 25 best states for mechanical engineers.
Most of the information regarding this topic is taken from the US Bureau of Labor that contains most important and most trustful information for every professional field. According to their database, during the 10-year-period, from the year 2014 when there were 277,500 employed mechanical engineers in the whole US, to the year 2024, there will be the increase in job employment in this sector for at least 5%. Easiest states to find the job in this field are Michigan, followed by Texas and California.
The average annual salary, counted down by collecting the information from all states in the US is $84,190, but you will be happy to know that 15 out of the 25 states on the list are offering on average more than this amount to mechanical engineers. On the other hand, the lowest salary recorded in this field was $54,420, but the highest ever in the whole US in 2016 was $131,350. So, for starters, do your math. After you are done, please continue reading this post so I can explain the methodology, as always and don’t skip it like you usually do because this one is slightly different than the one used in almost every article of this nature.
Besides taking the annual median salary for mechanical engineers in each state from Bureau of Labor, and the cost of living index from the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center, the research team took one more step by finding out the job growth rate for each state with a little help from Projections Central so you will also get the insight in the future potential job openings for this position.
States that appeared as the top three were Arizona, Michigan, and Texas.
With the total IM Score of 128, Arizona took the third place on the list of 25 best states for mechanical engineers. While the salary is a bit higher than the average annual salary in the whole country and it is estimated to be around $89,760, the cost of living index is a bit below the boundaries (98.1). According to the statistics, there is the assumed job growth of 16.3% in the next period, which means about 200 annual job openings, which will increase the number of employed experts in this field by 650.
As I mentioned before, Michigan is the state that hires the highest number of mechanical engineers, which is why it definitely should be ranked among the top three on the list. The only parameter that put it on the second instead of the first place was a bit lower salary than you could expect if working in the state that took the first place, but I will get to it. Besides, Michigan doesn’t offer that low salary to mechanical engineers and if you chose it as your next destination, you can expect the salary on annual basis of around $86,500. The job growth rate is, according to the statistics, about 18.1% and, since it already has the highest number of employees (40,060) in this field, it is obvious that the percentage will mean the biggest number of job openings, which should be around 47,310 or 2,000 on an annual basis. The cost of living index is also pretty low, 88.2.
And, finally, the first ranked state for mechanical engineers, Texas. Also one of the states that hire the most mechanical engineers, can expect the job growth in the next period by 950 on average. The current salary for mechanical engineers in Texas is $91,710 and the cost of living index is 90.7.
Feeling good after reading about these top 3? Then proceed to the full article for finding out about all 25 best states for mechanical engineers.
