Still Underground

Engineering majors dominate a new list of the top 10 highest-earning and most in-demand bachelors' degrees, according to a report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers. The top three and their startling salaries are - - (1) Petroleum Engineering - - $86,220, (2) Chemical Engineering - - $65,142, and (3) Mining Engineering - - $65,552. The average of top three degrees is roughly 23% higher than the average of the remaining seven.

What is interesting about the top three is the common thread that they share. Two of the three involve extracting resources from underground while the third involves processing these resources.

In an era of focusing on sustainability issues, huge information and computer networks, and a global commitment to communication engineering - - the top part of the engineering pyramid is still underground. The center of the global economic engine is below the surface - - from liquid BTUs to solid BTUs - - what fuels everything is still primarily underground. It is and has been - - the start of the practice of mining engineering dates to the Roman Empire. The current engineering salary structure is a reflection of the importance, power, and influence of the underground economy.

The pyramid may not change for a considerable length of time - - even in the era of the Googles, the Apples, smart phones, solar cells, and fields of ethanol producing corn. The engineer pumping BTUs from a 4-inch diameter hole in the earth’s surface has more economic value than the engineer pushing bytes and bits through a fiber optics line. The labor market understands this – without one you don’t have the other.

The movement to other sources of energy may not flip the pyramid either - - the future may still be underground. With the emergence of electric cars, look for the demand for lithium to increase (lithium is ideal for making lightweight batteries). Nearly half the world’s known resources are buried beneath vast salt flats in southwestern Bolivia, the largest of which is called the Salar de Uyuni. Bolivians have begun to speak of their country becoming the “the Saudi Arabia of lithium.” (I previously wrote about this issue and potential problems in a story entitled “OLEC” - - The Organization of the Lithium Exporting Countries - - http://witandwisdomofanengineer.blogspot.com/2009/10/olec.html.)

Power generation in the future may be more about looking down than up. There are 436 nuclear reactors operating in the world today, just 20 more than in 1990. But look for a huge resurgence in nuclear power generation and uranium mining and processing. Worldwide, hundreds of reactors are being planned and 53 are being constructed. What comes out of the ground as BTUs goes back underground as waste - - a mining engineer’s employment dream.

The future looks like it may still be underground.