Why are there few occupations for Chemical Engineering?

[dodokoko]

I was thinking about going through chemical engineering major but then I saw these figures and I was shocked !

http://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-... There are 33.000 occupations for chemical engineers and,

There are 300.000 occupations for electrical engineers.

http://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-...

İs that normal ? 10 times more than ChE !

 

[Almeisan]

So you would expect the number of students EE and ChE to have the same factor of 10. Is that not so?

 

[JakeBrodskyPE]

Chemical engineers work on large scale chemical processes. When the petrochemical industry does well, these graduates can earn impressive salaries. However, a chemical engineer is also valuable for water and waste-water treatment, environmental engineering processes, food processing, and many other areas. I know one ChE who was employed by beer breweries.

The low number of actual jobs for a chemical engineer is often hidden by the many more places they can work that don't really look like chemical engineering. It is interesting work, and it pays quite well.

 

[StrongSpica]

I totally agree with JakeBrodskyPE, Chemical engineers can work in a lot of places. I am a chemical student engineer and I can tell you that there are jobs, and even more jobs than students graduating from engineering schools.
So you can go through chemical engineering without feeling concerned.

 

[Shaun_W]

The number of chemical engineering students is also far lower than the amount in other disciplines, so it kinda balances out.

But that said, I'm somewhat getting the impression that the amount of chemical engineering students is increasingly quite a bit in the last few years, mainly due to the salary, so things might get competitive. But I don't have any definitive numbers.

 

[Almeisan]

Chemical Engineers can work in a lot of places? You mean electrical engineers can't?

I'd actually say that any place that has a chemical engineer has to hire an electrical engineer, and if they have a big enough plant they will hire their own EE.

I don't think that every place that has X EE's needs to have Y CE's.

 

[JakeBrodskyPE]

Almeisan makes a good point. I was educated as an electrical engineer. However, today I work as a control systems engineer.

At the end of the day, this is engineering. Engineers have a lot in common in their education and even more in common in their experience.

However, in the minds of bureaucratic pigeon hole counters, there is a slot marked Chemical Engineer. There is another slot marked Electrical Engineer. And there is a third slot marked Control System Engineer, which is some how also different from an Industrial Engineer. Read into that what you want. I don't think it means a whole lot.

 

[dodokoko]

What do you think is the difference in the occupation number ? I think 10 times is exaggeration, could the normal figure be 4-5 times more ?

For example maybe Electrical has 100 jobs while chemical has 25 jobs.

But 30-300 is very very abnormal. İs it true ?

 

[Almeisan]

In what way do you think it is abnormal and what is that based on?

 

[Shaun_W]

What do you think is the difference in the occupation number ? I think 10 times is exaggeration, could the normal figure be 4-5 times more ?

For example maybe Electrical has 100 jobs while chemical has 25 jobs.

But 30-300 is very very abnormal. İs it true ?

If you want an accurate answer then you will have to try and find the statistics yourself, although I don't see anything inherently "abnormal" about it.

 

[JakeBrodskyPE]

But 30-300 is very very abnormal. İs it true ?

This is data filled with lots of artifacts of how it was gathered. We are deep within Heisenberg's observation, which is to say that since the measurement is affected by the measurement methods and philosophies, it is really hard to discern much of anything.

 

[dodokoko]

up ? İt is said that there are many chemical engineers who are working as environmental engineers, materials engineers or chemists.

İt is true ?

what is the scope of this engineering comparing with electrical or mechanical engineering ?

 

[Shaun_W]

There definitely are chemical engineering graduates working as materials engineers - my former employer used to hire them for it.

In terms of scope, I think mechanical and electrical are probably the broadest.

 

[dodokoko]

What is the scope of ChE comparing with electrical or mechanical engineering ?

There are 100 jobs for chemical and 300 for electrical.

is that a normal proportion ?

 

[JakeBrodskyPE]

You haven't explained why you're so concerned with these distributions. Are you using this data to decide which field to study? Are you using this data to decide which one would be more likely to make more money? Are you using this data to determine whether you can afford the education you want?

The truth is that almost any engineering degree is a safe bet for future employment. Furthermore, you will probably take home a solid middle class salary from your very first job. Some fields are slightly more common than others, but the ones that aren't common may make more money.

So whether you chose Chemical or Electrical Engineering, you almost can't go wrong. If you can afford either one of these, you'll probably do well. Naturally, there are no guarantees. My prognostications about the market could be a sick joke by the time you graduate. But historically, that's how it has been.

 

[russ_watters]

What is the scope of ChE comparing with electrical or mechanical engineering ?

There are 100 jobs for chemical and 300 for electrical.

is that a normal proportion ?

You mean 30:300.

There is no such issue as "normal" here. Reality just is what it is. Electrical (and mechanical) is more general and chemical engineering more specialized. That's most of why there is a difference, though the distribution of industries will not be the same in all geographic areas.

 

[dodokoko]

I think it is not normal, unlike you said. Because a have searched jobs on indeed.com and there are 60.000 EE jobs and 21.000 ChE jobs.

http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=electrical+engineering&l=

http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=chemical+engineering&l=

Which is true ?

 

[dodokoko]

upğiee

 

[Shaun_W]

I think it is not normal, unlike you said. Because a have searched jobs on indeed.com and there are 60.000 EE jobs and 21.000 ChE jobs.

http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=electrical+engineering&l=

http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=chemical+engineering&l=

Which is true ?

That's probably true, yes.