New salary statistics for engineers – changing jobs pays off

The average salary for the entire engineering community last year was SEK 57,200 but with considerable varies between civil engineers and university engineers. Excluding managers and company leaders, the average salary is SEK 52,400. Managers and company leaders have an average salary of SEK 78,100 last year.

– Engineers' wage growth last year was the highest in ten years. Thanks to the great demand for engineers, it has been easy to change jobs and companies have been prepared to pay well for the engineers' high level of competence,  says Camilla Frankelius, chief negotiator for Engineers of Sweden.

The individual salary increases for engineers in the private sector averaged 6.9 percent in 2022. That is significantly higher than the 5 percent which was the average annual increase during the period 2013–2021. In the public sector, increases are not as high, with the individual salary increases of 3.9 percent, which is close to the average for the same period. One in four engineers, 25 percent, in the private sector changed jobs externally or internally within their company last year.

– A job change usually results in a higher salary increase compared to remaining in the same position, and is therefore one of the most important explanations for the fact that salaries rose so quickly during the past year, says Camilla Frankelius, chief negotiator for Engineers of Sweden.

Changing jobs causes wages to increase rapidly at a young age. Even the experienced engineers receive a salary increase, which usually gives the individual more than twice the salary increase in percentage than those who did not change jobs or employers

In the youngest age groups, those who changed jobs last year received individual salary increases of 15-16 percent, while those who did not change landed between 7 and 9 percent on average. An engineer in the 50-54 age group who changed jobs received an average increase of 8 percent in 2022, while those who remained in the same job received just under 4 percent.

– The job market for engineers is and has been very good during the year, and unemployment is still below one percent, says Camilla Frankelius, chief negotiator for Engineers of Sweden.

Engineers of Sweden´s salary statistics

• Average salary for all engineers SEK 57,200/month
• Average salary excluding managers/company managers: SEK 52,400/month
• Average salary for managers/company managers: SEK 78,100/month
• Average salary for university engineers: SEK 50,700/month
• Average salary for civil engineers: SEK 59,400/month

About the statistics
The figures are based on a survey conducted among over 74,000 working members of Sweden's Engineers. The salary increases apply to identical individuals, i.e. individuals who were included in the union's salary statistics for two subsequent years. About 70 percent of those who answer the salary survey in a given year usually also answered the previous year. The comparison figures are taken from Sweden's Engineers salary statistics for the years 2013 to 2022