Occupations · Architecture and Engineering
Electrical Engineers
Research, design, develop, test, or supervise the manufacturing and installation of electrical equipment, components, or systems for commercial, industrial, military, or scientific use.
O*NET 30.3 Database (USDOL/ETA) · occupation code 17-2071.00
What it pays
A single “average salary” hides the spread. This is the whole distribution — the gap between the bottom and top bar is usually the number that matters.
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 · national, cross-industry · annual wage
These are national figures, identical for every reader. The report recuts them for your metro area and ranks it among all of them.
Get yours →Pay over time
Median up 61% between 2003 and 2024, before inflation. The band shows the 10th to 90th percentile.
BLS OEWS, one release per year. Before May 2011 only national estimates were published, so geography detail starts there.
Where the jobs are
| Metro area | Median wage | Employed |
|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | $134,900 | 7,870 |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | $135,480 | 6,580 |
| Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI | $105,500 | 6,300 |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA | $127,160 | 5,960 |
| Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX | $110,210 | 4,910 |
BLS OEWS May 2024, metropolitan estimates · the 5 areas with the most people in this occupation
Your metro area, and where it ranks
LockedAll metropolitan areas BLS publishes for this occupation, with your own city's median and its rank among them.
Open in your report →Typical education to enter: Bachelor's degree · BLS Employment Projections 2024–34
What people in this job actually do
Ordered by how important the work is rated.
- Design, implement, maintain, or improve electrical instruments, equipment, facilities, components, products, or systems for commercial, industrial, or domestic purposes.
- Oversee project production efforts to assure projects are completed on time and within budget.
- Direct or coordinate manufacturing, construction, installation, maintenance, support, documentation, or testing activities to ensure compliance with specifications, codes, or customer requirements.
- Perform detailed calculations to compute and establish manufacturing, construction, or installation standards or specifications.
- Operate computer-assisted engineering or design software or equipment to perform engineering tasks.
- Confer with engineers, customers, or others to discuss existing or potential engineering projects or products.
- Investigate or test vendors' or competitors' products.
- Collect data relating to commercial or residential development, population, or power system interconnection to determine operating efficiency of electrical systems.
- Inspect completed installations and observe operations to ensure conformance to design and equipment specifications and compliance with operational, safety, or environmental standards.
- Develop systems that produce electricity with renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, or biofuels.
- Investigate customer or public complaints to determine the nature and extent of problems.
- Prepare technical drawings, specifications of electrical systems, or topographical maps to ensure that installation and operations conform to standards and customer requirements.
O*NET 30.3 task ratings, importance scale
Skills that matter most
Importance, rated 1 to 5.
O*NET 30.3 skills, importance scale
Software and tools
A dot marks what O*NET flags as in demand.
O*NET 30.3 software skills · hot-technology flag
What your tools are worth
Occupation-based, not posting-based: how much employment, pay and projected growth sit behind each tool. It is not a count of job ads.
| Tool | Value | Spread across occupations |
|---|---|---|
| C# | 88 | 16 → 55 occupations since 2015 |
| Python | 88 | 57 → 132 occupations since 2015 |
| C | 87 | 51 → 69 occupations since 2015 |
What your tools are worth
LockedThe same score for every tool in this occupation, plus the ones you ticked and the ones you did not.
Open in your report →What this work is actually like
Conditions rated against the average across all occupations — only what makes this job different is listed.
O*NET 30.3 Job Zones
Working conditions that stand out
O*NET 30.3 work context, frequency scale · observed 2023-08
How people actually get in
Share of workers by the education they hold.
O*NET 30.2 education, training and experience · observed 2023-08
What kind of person the work suits
Occupational interest profile, rated 1 to 7.
O*NET 30.2 occupational interests (RIASEC)
Tasks O*NET flags as emerging
- Develop software to control electrical systems.
O*NET 27.3 emerging tasks
What you take with you
Skills rated for how well they transfer into other occupations.
O*NET 30.3 transferable skills, importance scale
Knowledge the work draws on
Abilities it leans on
O*NET 30.3 abilities and knowledge, importance scale
How this job is advertised
The same work is posted under many titles — this is what to search for.
O*NET 30.3 job titles reported for this occupation
Get this as a personal report
The same sourced evidence, recut for the closest published view of your city, state or industry, as a dated PDF.
Free page vs. the $29 report
The page above is a public national reference, identical for every reader — and we deliberately give away a lot of it. The report does three things this page cannot: it answers the question you type in your own words, using only figures that appear in the report with their sources; it ranks your city among all 445 metros instead of the twelve shown here; and it places your level on the employer pay ladder. Choose $49 for the wider comparison of industries, places and next moves, $99 to add named employers and the international purchasing-power index.
What changed since 2015
Comparing O*NET release 20.1 (2015-10-01) with 30.3 (2026-05-01). Signs, not colour alone, carry the meaning. 6 entries that were only relabelled between releases are left out.
Now listed 34
No longer listed 15
Diff across the O*NET releases held here in full since October 2015, following occupations through merges and retirements. O*NET re-surveys occupations on a rolling cycle, so “no change” can also mean “not re-surveyed”.
Related jobs
O*NET 30.3 related occupations
Also called
O*NET 30.3 alternative titles
The same work in Europe
| ESCO occupation | ISCO | Match |
|---|---|---|
| electrical engineer | 2151.1 | exact |
| integrated circuit design engineer | 2152.1.6.1 | close |
| electric power generation engineer | 2151.1.1 | broader |
| electromechanical engineer | 2151.1.3 | broader |
| electromagnetic engineer | 2151.1.2 | broader |
| mine electrical engineer | 2151.1.4 | broader |
| power distribution engineer | 2151.1.5 | broader |
| substation engineer | 2151.1.6 | broader |
Official ESCO ↔ O*NET crosswalk (ESCO Secretariat with USDOL/ETA)
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