Finding a good job in this economy is not easy, even for candidates who have traditionally been in high demand. AfterCollege found the top metro areas for electrical engineers to begin their careers. We looked at entry-level jobs on AfterCollege as well as jobs from 75+ media and newspaper partners to find cities with the most employers. JustJobs, a top job aggregator and job search engine, provided us with a comprehensive database of jobs from across the country. Salary.com, a leading source of salary data provided us with information on average entry-level salaries in our top cities. Apartments.com, the premiere online rental resource representing millions of apartments from across the country, provided us with average rent prices for our target cities for one-bedroom apartments. We also looked at the Bureau of Labor Statistics for unemployment data for each area. The result is a guide that we hope will serve as a starting point for college graduates looking to begin their careers in electrical engineering.
What follows is a list of the top 10 cities and surrounding areas for entry-level electrical engineers:
- 1. Washington, DC Area
- 2. Atlanta, GA
- 3. San Francisco Bay Area
- 4. New York, NY
- 5. Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
- 6. Boston, MA
- 7. Philadelphia, PA
- 8. Chicago, IL
- 9. Los Angeles, CA
- 10. Seattle, WA
The average rental rate for the Washington, DC Area has been adjusted as of 09/14/09.
#1 Washington, DC Area
Cities with EE jobs in this metro area include: Adamstown, Bethesda, Bowie, Calverton, Columbia, Frederick, Indian Head, Laurel, Lewistown, Pisgah, Potomac, and Westlake in Maryland. Cities in Virginia include Alexandria , Arlington, Chantilly, Dahlgren, Fairfax, Fort Belvoir, Fredericksburg, Herndon, Leesburg, Manassas, McLean, Merrifield, Nokesville, Reston, Richmond, South Riding, Sterling, Takoma Park, and Vienna.
EE Employers: 135 employers with entry-level jobs
Unemployment rate: 6.6%
Salary for Electrical Engineer Level I: $64,086
Average 1 bedroom apartment rent: $1,469 per month
#2 Atlanta, GA Area
Cities with EE jobs in this metro area include: Alpharetta, Atlanta, Chamblee, Duluth, Dunwoody, Johns Creek, Kennesaw, Lawrenceville, Marietta, Milton, Norcross, Roswell, Sandy Springs and Suwanee.
EE Employers: 113 employers with entry-level jobs
Unemployment rate: 10.7%
Salary for Electrical Engineer Level I: $59,124
Average 1 bedroom apartment rent: $791 per month
#3 San Francisco Bay Area
Cities with EE jobs in this metro area include: Alameda, Campbell, Fremont, Hayward, Milpitas, Mountain View, Novato, Oakland, Palo Alto, Pleasanton, Portola Valley, Redwood City, San Carlos, San Francisco, San Jose, San Mateo, South San Francisco, Sunnyvale, and Walnut Creek.
EE Employers: 82 employers with entry-level jobs
Unemployment rate: 11.8%
Salary for Electrical Engineer Level I: $72,706
Average 1 bedroom apartment rent: $1,301 per month
#4 New York, NY Area
Cities with EE jobs in this metro area include: Brooklyn, Elmsford, Hartsdale, Mount Vernon, New York City, Somers, Valhalla, White Plains, Whitestone, and Yonkers.
EE Employers: 77 employers with entry-level jobs
Unemployment rate: 8.8%
Salary for Electrical Engineer Level I: $71,146
Average 1 bedroom apartment rent: $1,470 per month
#5 Dallas/Fort Worth, TX Area
Cities with EE jobs in this metro area include: Arlington, Cresson, Dallas, Fort Worth, Frisco, Garland, Grapevine, Irving, Lewisville and Plano.
EE Employers: 44 employers with entry-level jobs
Unemployment rate: 8.2%
Salary for Electrical Engineer Level I: $59,910
Average 1 bedroom apartment rent: $834 per month
#6 Boston, MA Area
Cities with EE jobs in this metro area include: Arlington, Auburndale, Beverly, Boston, Burlington, Cambridge, Foxboro, Framingham, Harvard, Holliston, Hopkinton, Marlborough, Medford, Newton Center, Newton Upper Falls, Wakefield, Waltham and Woburn.
EE Employers: 41 employers with entry-level jobs
Unemployment rate: 8.3%
Salary for Electrical Engineer Level I: $67,264
Average 1 bedroom apartment rent: $1,258 per month
#7 Philadelphia, PA Area
Cities with EE jobs in this metro area include: Ambler, Bala Cynwyd, Blue Bell, Bryn Mawr, Conshohocken, Fairview Village, Fort Washington, Horsham, Jamison, Kennett Square, King Of Prussia, Malvern, Norristown, Philadelphia, Swarthmore and Wayne, PA. In New Jersey we included Burlington, Camden, and West Deptford.
EE Employers: 47 employers with entry-level jobs
Unemployment rate: 8.7%
Salary for Electrical Engineer Level I: $63,112
Average 1 bedroom apartment rent: $992 per month
#8 Chicago, IL Area
Cities with EE jobs in this metro area include: Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Chicago, Des Plaines, Elgin, Hinsdale, Kirkland, Lake Bluff, Naperville, Oak Brook, Orland Park, Riverdale, Rosemont, Schaumburg, Waukegan.
EE Employers: 61 employers with entry-level jobs
Unemployment rate: 11.1%
Salary for Electrical Engineer Level I: $64,191
Average 1 bedroom apartment rent: $1,142 per month
#9 Los Angeles, CA Area
Cities with EE jobs in this metro area include: Anaheim, Brea, Buena Park, Burbank, Chatsworth, Cypress, El Segundo, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Los Angeles, Newport Beach, North Hollywood, Norwalk, Pasadena, Playa Del Rey, Santa Ana, Tarzana, Van Nuys, Venice, Whittier and Woodland Hills.
EE Employers: 54 employers with entry-level jobs
Unemployment rate: 10.8%
Salary for Electrical Engineer Level I: $66,267
Average 1 bedroom apartment rent: $1,334 per month
#10 Seattle, WA Area
Cities with EE jobs in this metro area include: Bellevue, Bothell, Everett, Kent, Kirkland, Redmond, Renton, Sammamish, Seattle, Snoqualmie Pass, Tukwila and Yarrow Point.
EE Employers: 41 employers with entry-level jobs
Unemployment rate: 9.3%
Salary for Electrical Engineer Level I: $65,915
Average 1 bedroom apartment rent: $1,078 per month
Other cities that deserve honorable mention and were close to the top include San Diego, Baltimore, and Minneapolis. While they did not make the top 10, they did have a good number of employers posting entry-level jobs for electrical engineers.
Methodology: We started with the cities that had the most employers with at least one entry-level job in electrical engineering. Job data was obtained from employers posting on AfterCollege, on AfterCollege-powered career networks at academic departments and groups and via our network of 75+ newspaper partners. We also looked at jobs posted on JustJobs, which aggregates data from over 80 different job boards. We then organized these cities into metro areas as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. We assigned this ranking a weight of 40% in our overall rank. We then looked at June, 2009 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for unemployment numbers for each metro area and assigned this a weight of 20% in our rankings. We also looked at salary data for entry-level electrical engineers from Salary.com and gave this data a weight of 20%. Finally, we took average monthly rental rates, for the first half of 2009 for a one-bedroom apartment for each of the metro areas, courtesy of Apartments.com and assigned this data point a weight of 20%. We combined all these measures to create a composite rank that provided us with our final list.
This article was written by Roberto Angulo, Chad Boonsupa, Valerie Henry and Elizabeth Rodriguez. We would like to thank our media partners, JustJobs.com, Salary.com and Apartments.com for providing us with the data that made this report possible.
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