A seven-county study published Oct. 24 in Central Penn Business Journal showed salaries for the highest-paying professions in Central Pennsylvania generally increased from 2006 to 2007.
The study examined Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Perry and York counties, where the top ten highest earning jobs were nearly all in the medical field saw salaries increase unevenly from 2006 to 2007, with some salaries decreasing. Family and general practitioners’ salaries increasing by 20.53 percent, while surgeons’ salaries increased by only 4.33 percent and general pediatricians’ salaries decreased by a 21.69 percent.
Technology-based professions in Central Pennsylvania also fared well in 2007. Computer and information systems managers, who last year earned an average salary of $88,95, saw an increase of 2.75 percent from 2006. Computer hardware engineers and computer research and information scientists averaged annual salaries of $86,940 and $89,803, respectively. Computer programmers earned less, about $63,426, but saw salaries grow by more than 8.5 percent.
A survey released last month by the National Association of Colleges and Employers echoed this trend, reporting that in 2008 the average salary offer made to computer and information sciences graduates increased by 12.9 percent, from $51,992 to $58,677.
Although 94 percent of all disciplines showed starting salary increases, the amounts were significantly higher for computer and science grads than for liberal arts grads. For example, chemical engineering salaries averaged $63,773 and computer engineering salaries averaged $60,280, while liberal arts grads averaged a mere $36,715.
Source: Central Penn Business Journal, National Association of Colleges and Employers
Writer: John Davidson
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