These Are The 10 Best Cities For Civil Engineers

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Whether you’re just starting out your career, or looking to make a move, it can be important to know what part of the country offers the best chance for your long term career prospects. And for a very common profession like Project Engineers, the regional differences can have a big impact on your salary and career options.

To help you make the best decision possible, we at Zippia wanted to look at the cities that offer project engineers the most for their career. These are the cities across the US where project engineers get paid well, relative to the cost of living, and jobs are plentiful.

So we did what we do best and dove into the numbers from the BLS to figure out which cities have the best opportunities for project engineers.The result is this list of the best cities project engineers:

So there you have it — Anchorage is the best city when it comes to being a project engineer.

And where should you consider avoiding if you’re a project engineer? That would be Hagerstown.

Read on to see how we completed our research on the best cities for project engineers and for more on the top ten cities.

How we determined the best cities to be a project engineers?

Here at Zippia, we talk to a lot of people of all different backgrounds looking for jobs. Our research has concluded that there are two common things people want in a job:

Availability of jobs
Pay

So in order to find out the best cities for project engineers in America we needed to figure out where the jobs are and how well project engineers get paid. This led to the following criteria taken from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s Occupational Employment Statistics for 2015:

Location quotient. A measure of how common a job is a given city.
Average annual salary.
Average annual salary for entry level work.

To make all the salary numbers more apples to apples across cities, we compared the salary data relative to the state’s cost of living.

This left us with enough data for 360 metro areas across the country. We then took the primary area of the metro and labeled that the ‘city’ for this analysis. So, for example, “Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA NECTA Division” became simply Boston.

In order to develop an overall ranking, we ranked each city for each criteria from 1 to 360 where 1 was the best.

We then averaged all the rankings for a city into a Job Score with the city having the lowest overall Job Score earning the distinction of being the best city for project engineers in America.

So without further ado, let’s get into just what made each city so great for project engineers.

1. Anchorage, AK

Total Jobs: 760
Average Annual Salary: $113,970
Average Entry Level Salary: $71,000
Location Quotient: 2.15

2. Augusta, GA

Total Jobs: 960
Average Annual Salary: $96,870
Average Entry Level Salary: $60,330
Location Quotient: 2.26

3. Jackson, MI

Total Jobs: 320
Average Annual Salary: $89,500
Average Entry Level Salary: $63,500
Location Quotient: 2.7

4. Reading, PA

Total Jobs: 520
Average Annual Salary: $98,940
Average Entry Level Salary: $63,370
Location Quotient: 1.54

5. Idaho Falls, ID

Total Jobs: 170
Average Annual Salary: $93,740
Average Entry Level Salary: $59,470
Location Quotient: 1.41

6. Redding, CA

Total Jobs: 260
Average Annual Salary: $102,140
Average Entry Level Salary: $74,870
Location Quotient: 2.2

7. Fairbanks, AK

Total Jobs: 150
Average Annual Salary: $98,150
Average Entry Level Salary: $70,370
Location Quotient: 1.99

8. Houston, TX

Total Jobs: 11,030
Average Annual Salary: $110,160
Average Entry Level Salary: $56,230
Location Quotient: 1.89

9. Yuba City, CA

Total Jobs: 230
Average Annual Salary: $100,070
Average Entry Level Salary: $82,780
Location Quotient: 2.95

10. Oakland, CA

Total Jobs: 4,160
Average Annual Salary: $107,010
Average Entry Level Salary: $69,530
Location Quotient: 1.98

And that’s our list of the best cities for project engineers

If you’re looking to start out your career as a project engineer these are the cities that should be at the top of your list. You’ll find high pay, available jobs, and chances for career advancement.

If you’re curious, here are the worst cities to be a project engineer in America:

Detailed List Of The Best Cities For Project Engineers

Rank	State	Average Salary	Entry Level Salary	# Of People
1	Anchorage, AK	$113,970	$71,000	760
2	Augusta, GA	$96,870	$60,330	960
3	Jackson, MI	$89,500	$63,500	320
4	Reading, PA	$98,940	$63,370	520
5	Idaho Falls, ID	$93,740	$59,470	170
6	Redding, CA	$102,140	$74,870	260
7	Fairbanks, AK	$98,150	$70,370	150
8	Houston, TX	$110,160	$56,230	11,030
9	Yuba City, CA	$100,070	$82,780	230
10	Oakland, CA	$107,010	$69,530	4,160
11	Beaumont, TX	$106,330	$61,130	400
12	Greenville, SC	$92,200	$54,020	1,320
13	Baton Rouge, LA	$96,470	$58,640	1,010
14	Santa Maria, CA	$111,790	$73,220	440
15	San Francisco, CA	$107,540	$67,950	3,050
16	Santa Rosa, CA	$101,970	$74,460	500
17	Memphis, TN	$94,440	$58,160	1,290
18	Chattanooga, TN	$94,380	$58,190	480
19	New Orleans, LA	$94,660	$57,790	1,340
20	Killeen, TX	$91,340	$55,860	380
21	Midland, TX	$117,850	$61,550	170
22	Mobile, AL	$84,890	$51,180	520
23	Knoxville, TN	$93,190	$55,160	750
24	Sacramento, CA	$100,200	$63,180	4,660
25	Sioux Falls, SD	$83,600	$55,470	290
26	Wilmington, NC	$90,780	$62,120	230
27	Longview, TX	$100,650	$60,020	170
28	Fresno, CA	$97,890	$70,050	850
29	San Jose, CA	$107,000	$63,590	2,590
30	Bellingham, WA	$86,610	$60,920	250
31	Oxnard, CA	$106,510	$76,470	470
32	Springfield, IL	$88,360	$60,470	320
33	Decatur, AL	$89,170	$55,790	90
34	Dallas, TX	$92,420	$58,990	3,810
35	Seattle, WA	$86,700	$56,330	5,810
36	Albuquerque, NM	$88,340	$54,480	710
37	Pittsburgh, PA	$85,710	$54,260	3,400
38	San Rafael, CA	$103,450	$81,300	170
39	Nashville, TN	$88,920	$50,930	1,760
40	Bakersfield, CA	$104,320	$66,520	520
41	Trenton, NJ	$95,780	$58,720	1,090
42	Kansas City, MO	$81,310	$54,020	1,870
43	Tulsa, OK	$81,460	$50,860	1,040
44	Savannah, GA	$93,490	$51,580	320
45	Harrisburg, PA	$81,850	$54,920	1,250
46	Sheboygan, WI	$90,910	$60,220	100
47	Ames, IA	$79,070	$53,860	240
48	Tacoma, WA	$84,900	$62,960	550
49	Framingham, MA	$104,980	$62,620	460
50	Santa Cruz, CA	$97,040	$69,190	170
51	Chico, CA	$93,690	$65,650	190
52	Bremerton, WA	$82,070	$64,850	190
53	Olympia, WA	$76,560	$60,760	740
54	Billings, MT	$77,980	$50,730	270
55	Anaheim, CA	$103,130	$58,960	4,210
56	Austin, TX	$81,440	$52,160	2,320
57	Pueblo, CO	$91,840	$53,400	350
58	Madera, CA	$102,970	$71,860	50
59	San Diego, CA	$91,190	$63,310	4,960
60	West Palm Beach, FL	$91,960	$55,750	1,130
61	Dayton, OH	$83,190	$55,920	450
62	Bismarck, ND	$78,500	$47,770	440
63	Columbus, OH	$79,630	$51,160	1,810
64	Rapid City, SD	$68,820	$51,960	250
65	Tuscaloosa, AL	$82,600	$48,440	190
66	Ogden, UT	$82,260	$50,190	570
67	Owensboro, KY	$82,100	$52,110	50
68	Wilmington, DE	$91,120	$62,990	530
69	St. Louis, MO	$79,080	$52,900	2,180
70	Wenatchee, WA	$79,800	$58,670	110
71	Gulfport, MS	$81,920	$53,030	210
72	Chicago, IL	$94,060	$55,050	6,660
73	Charleston, WV	$73,300	$46,780	470
74	Lake Charles, LA	$91,700	$55,440	100
75	Salt Lake City, UT	$79,180	$51,050	1,690
76	College Station, TX	$90,440	$45,160	290
77	Altoona, PA	$75,630	$56,140	220
78	Las Cruces, NM	$82,760	$50,840	140
79	Norwich, CT	$93,180	$63,750	480
80	Atlanta, GA	$93,290	$46,260	5,700
81	Fort Worth, TX	$87,210	$55,020	1,230
82	Houma, LA	$85,860	$58,490	100
83	Los Angeles, CA	$100,780	$60,950	7,270
84	Bay City, MI	$82,270	$55,610	60
85	Portland, OR	$83,600	$54,660	3,380
86	Warner Robins, GA	$93,950	$50,490	100
87	Montgomery County, PA	$84,920	$51,680	2,350
88	State College, PA	$80,660	$52,840	190
89	Lowell, MA	$104,200	$53,710	620
90	Huntsville, AL	$80,010	$48,790	370
91	Raleigh, NC	$75,730	$52,350	2,610
92	Philadelphia, PA	$89,680	$53,130	1,370
93	Texarkana, TX	$94,430	$56,050	40
94	Salem, OR	$83,700	$56,060	350
95	Fort Collins, CO	$101,520	$41,680	610
96	Lafayette, LA	$79,210	$54,440	360
97	Denver, CO	$88,150	$53,560	5,150
98	Birmingham, AL	$81,790	$51,650	570
99	Riverside, CA	$98,840	$60,820	2,220
100	Alexandria, LA	$91,070	$52,220	70

Never miss an opportunity that’s right for you.

Author

Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.

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