Strategy Session

Pop quiz: What professions instantly come to mind when you think of Washington, D.C.?

Politician, member of the media and lawyer probably rolled right off your tongue. And of course, those are right up there.

But what about engineer? Fact: there are 47,000 commercial engineers in Greater Washington, surpassing the number of lawyers by 22 percent. Fact: the region boasts 3,600 aerospace engineers, which is twice the national average.

Okay, so it’s not an engineering mecca the likes of San Jose or San Francisco, but Greater Washington outpaces LA, Chicago, Boston and New York City per capita for engineering employees per 100,000 residents (for every 100,000 residents, 916 are trained as engineers, according to the study).

You’ll find these and other facts from a recently released study by The Greater Washington Initiative. The study, “Human Capital: Greater Washington’s Knowledge Workers,” examines 18 industries, and engineering is one of them.

One interesting takeaway from the study is that in 2014, the Greater Washington engineering workforce is expected to have about 55,000 workers commercially and self-employed, which is a 10.5 percent increase from 2005. The data includes all disciplines of engineering—including civil, mechanical, and chemical—but does include breakdowns for electronics. For example, in terms of projected openings in the region for 2006-2014, 1,939 are for electronics engineers, 1,776 for engineering managers, 1,248 for electrical engineers. The total for all engineering disciplines is 14,997 openings for the time period. (The projections are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.)

An important factor most people consider when selecting a job is salary. In this regard, the average engineering salary in Greater Washington is $81,893, which is only lower than San Francisco ($91,898) compared to other metro areas.

Any of you out there in Greater Washington want to weigh in on this study? Do you think the opportunities are as rosy as they say? Are you a transplant from another part of the country and chose to live there?

If you don’t live in Greater Washington and want to talk about another location, feel free to tell me what’s so wonderful about being in the electronics industry where you live. I’m in Boston and could tell you what’s so great about living in The Hub (The Red Sox!), but I’d rather hear from you...