Median Annual Engineering Salaries for 2012

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Whilst searching for some employment news, I ran across a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics web page that gave median annual salaries for engineers and technicians in 2012. I doubt the numbers moved much in 2013. Median is the point where half the samples are less than and half the samples are greater than that median number. Personally, I prefer a mean average number along with a standard deviation. The problem with a median value is that it is possible (albeit not necessarily probable) that the lower half values all lie within, say, 2% below the median, while the upper half values lie 200% above the median. In such a situation the mean average of the sample would be almost 100% (2x) the median and the standard deviation, and the standard deviation would be nearly equal to the median. For example this set of sample data (49,49,49,49,49,49,50,150,150,150,150,150,150) produces the following statistical values: Median = 50, mean average (x) = 95.7, standard deviation (σ) = 52.3. The median tells me nothing about the distribution of the sample data, whereas x and σ tell me the data points are widely separated from the average (which is close to the median). So, keep that in mind when considering the salary information from the BLS.

Here is a list of current engineering jobs listed on RF Cafe.

Posted January 9, 2014