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South Carolina Remains National Leader in Engineers: 2nd in concentration of industrial engineers

Submitted by: John Warner on Jul 21, 2010 at 5:49 am Tagged with: Engineers Source: South Carolina Engineering Cluster

COLUMBIA, S.C. – July 16, 2010 – Numbers from the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that South Carolina continues to rank among the top states in the nation for employment in several important engineering occupations.

The Palmetto State ranks second in the nation in employment concentration of industrial engineers, third for industrial engineering technicians and fourth for environmental engineering technicians. The state ranks fifth in employment concentration of health and safety engineers.

“South Carolina has a long history of being home to companies that depend on engineers, from Fluor to GE to Duke Energy. These rankings from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reaffirm that our state has high concentration of skilled workers and our strength in engineering will continue to be an asset as we work to encourage growth among existing businesses and recruit new investments,” said Joe Taylor, Secretary of Commerce.

South Carolina continues to rank high in the nuclear energy field, ranking first in the nation in concentration of nuclear power reactor operators and nuclear technicians, and eighth in the nation in concentration of nuclear engineers. The state is likely to remain a leader in this area as new nuclear plants are brought online in the coming years. Additionally, the state ranks highly in the concentration of chemical engineers (sixth in the nation), mechanical engineers (sixth in the nation) and environmental engineers (ninth in the nation). The state is fourth in the concentration of chemical plant and system operators.

In the past year, a variety of companies have announced investments in South Carolina that require a range of engineering expertise. Such companies include Scientific Research Corporation, BAE Systems, Alexium, Fujifilm, KEMET, MTU Detroit Diesel and Proterra among others. In particular, South Carolina’s aerospace sector has seen an explosion of growth with major investments from Boeing, GE Aviation and others.

Some other engineering areas in which South Carolina compares favorably to the rest of the nation include:

* The state ranks first in the nation in concentration of team assemblers.
* Second in the nation in concentration of engine and other machine assemblers.
* Third in the nation in concentration of chemical equipment operators and tenders.
* Third in the nation in concentration of computer-controlled machine tool operators.

As sectors like automotive, aerospace, advanced materials and nuclear power continue to grow in South Carolina, the state anticipates future growth in engineering. With research centers like the Savannah River National Laboratory, the University of South Carolina’s Electrochemical Engineering Center, the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research and Clemson’s Advanced Materials Center, firms have access to leading research in a several engineering fields.