Salaries rise for engineers despite higher unemployment

[FarCenter]

Salaries for engineers have been increasing, despite a weak economy and a higher-than-normal rate of unemployment for this group, according to the IEEE-USA.

For all engineers, median income, including salary, commissions, bonuses and net self-employment income, increased from $113,500 in 2009 to $118,000 in 2010, or by 3.96%, according the IEEE-USA's annual salary survey. For software engineers, the median salary grew from $104,000 in 2009 to $109,000 in 2010, a 4.8% increase. That uptick helped make up some lost ground from 2008, when salaries were at $105,210.

The IEEE-USA's data was based on responses from more than 17,000 IEEE members who responded to an Internet-based survey.

This increase in wages happened despite an increase in unemployment among engineers last year. The unemployment rate in 2010 for all engineers was 4.5%. For software engineers it was 4.6%, and it was 5.4% for all computing professionals, according to U.S. Labor Department data analyzed by the IEEE-USA. Those figures are about double the normal rate of unemployment for engineers.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9220332/Salaries_rise_for_engineers_despite_higher_unemployment_