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Median pay
$121,860
Median annual pay for Chemical Engineer.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · 2024
A smaller, specialized market with very high experienced compensation and strong reported job satisfaction; industry cyclicality remains a real risk.
A smaller, specialized market with very high experienced compensation and strong reported job satisfaction; industry cyclicality remains a real risk.
The measurable baseline is $121,860 median pay, 2.6% projected employment change from 2024 to 2034, and about 1,100 annual openings. Those figures establish the national baseline; the occupation-specific evidence on this page is what makes the decision more useful than a generic profile.
The national median-pay figure in the current ChooseField dataset is $121,860. The 2024 self-employed share is 5.1%, which matters because self-employment can make outcomes less uniform across workers. A national median is a benchmark, not a personal forecast: experience, geography, employer type, specialty, credentials, and hours can move actual compensation materially.
BLS data in the ChooseField corpus put 2024 employment at 21,600 and projected 2034 employment at 22,100. That corresponds to 2.6% projected growth over the decade. BLS projects about 1,100 openings per year, including growth and replacement demand. This distinction matters when people ask whether a field is oversaturated: growth measures whether the occupation itself is getting larger, while annual openings also reflect people retiring, changing occupations, or leaving roles that must be refilled.
BLS lists the typical entry education as Bachelor's degree. Treat this entry path like an investment: compare the time and cost required to enter with the pay, annual openings, and alternatives available at a similar training level.
Experienced median salary. The headline figure is $160,000. Median salary in AIChE's 2025 salary survey. Source: AIChE (2025).
New-graduate median salary. The headline figure is $79,000. Median salary reported for new graduates in the 2025 AIChE survey. Source: AIChE (2025).
Job satisfaction. The headline figure is 85%. Respondents satisfied with their current position. Source: AIChE (2025).
Chemical engineering is specialized and comparatively small, even though experienced compensation can be high. AIChE's salary data also show why one national median is incomplete: new-graduate and experienced pay can look very different.
This field is a stronger fit if you are comfortable with a bachelor's-level technical foundation and want work centered on designing, integrating, or improving real systems.
Before choosing Chemical Engineer, compare it with Mechanical Engineer, Data Scientist, Civil Engineer. The purpose is not to find a universal winner; it is to see how pay, training time, annual openings, work setting, and field-specific risks change when you move to an adjacent option.
A smaller, specialized market with very high experienced compensation and strong reported job satisfaction; industry cyclicality remains a real risk. The measurable baseline is $121,860 median pay, 2.6% projected 2024–34 employment change, about 1,100 annual openings, and a typical entry path of Bachelor's degree.
The national median in the current ChooseField dataset is $121,860. Treat that as a benchmark rather than an expected starting salary; actual compensation varies by experience, location, employer, specialty, credentials, and hours.
BLS projects 2.6% employment change from 2024 to 2034 and about 1,100 openings per year. Growth and openings are different signals, so the field-specific evidence on this page should also be considered.
Compare Chemical Engineer with Mechanical Engineer, Data Scientist on pay, training time, openings, working conditions, and occupation-specific evidence rather than relying on one score.
National pay and employment projections come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Other sources are linked on their cards.