One of the issues I tend to harp on is the fact that our children are constantly bombarded, via multimedia, with the rich and famous.  They see the wealth and glamor of entertainment, sports and wall street.  The reality, of course, is that the percentage of children that end up eventually in those positions of exclusivity is very, very small.  The majority of children, if they want to make a good salary and have a stable career, will need to attend college and perhaps extended education.

And fortunately for them the jobs with the highest salaries are in the growing fields of STEM.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the highest paid jobs for students with college degrees of 2010 for graduates are:

1. Petroleum Engineering
2. Chemical Engineering
3. Mining and Mineral Engineering
4. Computer Science
5. Computer Engineer

Consider that the average salary for STEM occupations in May 2005 was $64,560 and that for all other occupations was $38,870.  For engineers, in 2005, the average salary was $74,670 and for the lowest paid groups, life, natural or social science technicians the average salary was $39,920.  Combine this with the fact that some economists have estimated that more than 50% of the U.S economic growth since WWII has been due to scientific and technological innovation.

So the numbers are abundantly clear STEM jobs provide our country with growth and innovation while providing well paying and stable jobs.

Tags: engineering, highest paid jobs, STEM

This entry was posted on Monday, August 30th, 2010 at 11:52 pm and is filed under Jobs and STEM. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.