Michael DeSafey | Executive Recruiter and HR Professional
The 2017 Forecast Of Construction Jobs
Engineering is one of the key jobs driving production and construction in the economy. Whether it is environmental engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers or others, they are all contributing enormously to economic development. 2017 should see some decent growth in this industry, both in jobs and in the overall industry.
Hiring in engineering is strong. Among professional engineers, the unemployment rate is only 2.6% which compares to about 4.6% nationally. That rate for engineers may even improve over the next year. There are currently a little over 120,000 job openings for engineers nationally which may also grow slightly in 2017. The low quarterlies of salaries is around $71,250 while the high quartile starts at $107,200.
So far in 2017, about 60,000 jobs have been added in the construction sector of the economy. On a full year basis including the increase over the summer months, projections expect about 200,000 to 300,000 jobs to be added in this sector. Each construction job is attached at some level to an engineer who is either designing the buildings themselves or the infrastructure of the facility. Depending on how they are defined, growth of construction engineers ranges from 10,000 to 50,000 in 2017.
Over the next ten years, engineering jobs should continue to grow quickly. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts engineering jobs will grow 5% annually which is faster than the overall growth of jobs at 2% per year.
No matter where you live, engineer salaries are above the national average. These highly trained, well-educated professionals are in demand as the economy transitions from an economy with production by hand to an automated economy of software and machines.
Michael DeSafey is a leading executive recruiter for professionals in the construction, engineering and environmental industries. He is currently the President of Webuild Staffing www.webuildstaffing.com . To learn more about Michael or to follow his blog please visit www.michaeldesafey.com