Infographic: Where Do America’s Mechanical Engineers Work?

Mechanical engineers are found in dozens of industries, and the technical divisions of ASME span from aerospace to tribology. However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the arm of the U.S. government tasked with tracking employment, found that of the 303,440 mechanical engineers at work in the United States in May 2018 (the date of its most recent estimate of industry-specific occupational employment and wages), 148,890 work in the manufacturing sector. That’s 49 percent of all mechanical engineers.
 
Manufacturing makes up a lot of sectors, and some of them have particularly large concentrations of MEs. The “motor vehicle parts manufacturing” sector and the “aerospace product and parts manufacturing” sector are two that have more than 12,000 each. “Navigational, member measuring, electro medical, and control instruments manufacturing” employs 11,590 mechanical engineers.
 
But the largest single block of mechanical engineers is found in services: “engineering services” that employs 52,900 mechanical engineers.
 
The chart below shows the industries where all MEs in America work: