Overview
1. Automation Risk
2. User Poll
3. Growth
4. Wages
5. Volume
Decription
Resources
Comments

Civil Engineers

AUTOMATION RISK
CALCULATED
0.0%
risk level
POLLING
34%
Based on 1,380 votes
LABOR DEMAND
GROWTH
6.9%
by year 2031
WAGES
$89,940
or $43.24 per hour
Volume
307,570
as of 2022
SUMMARY
JOB SCORE
7.8/10

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Comments (22)

Automation risk

0.0% (Minimal Risk)

Minimal Risk (0-20%): Occupations in this category have a low probability of being automated, as they typically demand complex problem-solving, creativity, strong interpersonal skills, and a high degree of manual dexterity. These jobs often involve intricate hand movements and precise coordination, making it difficult for machines to replicate the required tasks.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Some quite important qualities of the job are difficult to automate:

  • Originality

  • Negotiation

  • Persuasion

  • Social Perceptiveness

User poll

34% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 0.0% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Civil Engineers will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?






Sentiment

The following graph(s) are included wherever there is a substantial amount of votes to render meaningful data. These visual representations display user poll results over time, providing a significant indication of sentiment trends.

Sentiment over time (quarterly)

Sentiment over time (yearly)

Growth

Fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Civil Engineers' job openings is expected to rise 6.9% by 2031

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2021 and 2031
Updated projections are due 09-2023.

Wages

Very high paid relative to other professions

In 2022, the median annual wage for 'Civil Engineers' was $89,940, or $43 per hour

'Civil Engineers' were paid 94.2% higher than the national median wage, which stood at $46,310

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Volume

Significantly greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2022 there were 307,570 people employed as 'Civil Engineers' within the United States.

This represents around 0.21% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 480 people are employed as 'Civil Engineers'.

Job description

Perform engineering duties in planning, designing, and overseeing construction and maintenance of building structures and facilities, such as roads, railroads, airports, bridges, harbors, channels, dams, irrigation projects, pipelines, power plants, and water and sewage systems.

SOC Code: 17-2051.00

Resources

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Comments

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Hari (Low) says
This job is all about creativity and presence of mind.
Oct 18, 2022 at 12:46 PM
RCE (Low) says
Many engineers require a lot of human thinking, as well as considering other engineering projects and the type of work that will be done with the project.

The ability to plan ahead and the intelligence to consider different outcomes without failure is something most people want a human doing.
Jun 10, 2022 at 02:11 PM
Javed (Low) says
It depends on which particular divisions you are involved with. Engineering design, yes, we can already see some automation here. Construction, nah, not in this lifetime. Contract and Project Management, haha, good luck robots/AI's.
Mar 10, 2022 at 10:23 PM
Moritz Mayr (Highly likely) says
There is no creative process involved, at least to my knowledge. The architect designs the building and can give the constraints under which AI has to optimize the building, statics, material consumption and more. What an engineer does is highly mathematical and predictable and can be done better by computer than by humans.
Nov 22, 2021 at 10:09 AM
Glenn (Low) says
Civil engineers need high creativity and robots are just programmed to do a specific task again and again
Oct 14, 2021 at 02:33 PM
Reily (Low) says
It is expected that this activity of reasoning, execution and visual and instant supervision will not be replaced by teams that do not manage immediate reactions or alternative solutions to current problems.
Sep 06, 2021 at 01:48 AM
Prajwol (No chance) says
It needs creativity.
Apr 30, 2021 at 09:20 AM
DaBaby (No chance) says
Automation will augment the field greatly but will not replace civil engineers at all
Mar 11, 2021 at 06:44 PM
Jam Jamonir (Uncertain) says
Only construction engineers will be preserved. Designs can be performed by AI.
Feb 23, 2021 at 05:32 AM
Big Al (Uncertain) says
I'd also like to point out that the design aspect "may" be automated but in the field when problems occur which tends to be often in Construction...will still need individuals with experience and "know-how" to prevent a domino affect of problems to follow. So, I think Civil Engineers and Inspectors are safe from their jobs being automated.
Dec 02, 2020 at 06:40 PM
Jainik Shah says
I think that just in a decade most of the civil engineers who design structural components, can loose their jobs easily. Just feed the structural layout and surrounding environmental conditions to computer, the quantity of material along with design, placement, cost and estimated time for structure to complete will be shared by computer.
P.s. : I wish this doesn't happen.
Nov 28, 2020 at 06:57 PM
Galang (Moderate) says
I vote "likely" because of the advanced technology we have today, and I think after 2 decades it is possible to develop and enhance it more. In that case, robots might replace some duties of a Civil Engineer but still, it is needed to be controlled by a professional. So I vote "likely"
Jul 16, 2020 at 02:32 PM
Tammy says
Yes, I agree with your idea. Even with consulting part, Engineering Community also develops a heap of Software environment to create and enhance an automatic optimise design process for structure and geotechnical firm.
Jun 22, 2021 at 06:02 AM
Pasquale Tsingos (Low) says
Although we work constantly immersed in tech, there's much of subjectivity at our tasks and routine.
Jun 01, 2020 at 10:02 PM
anon (Uncertain) says
Many calculations are based on design codes and standards which simply need to be converted to the logic of a program. Engineers will mostly be relegated to determining the inputs to the program.
Apr 14, 2020 at 11:45 PM
RPM (Moderate) says
Civil engineers apply the same set of rules to each site/project they work on. These rules could be universally standardized, and then replicated and applied to sites/projects by AI using well-defined algorithms that account for all scenarios. One day civil engineering design (and likely all other engineering design) will be heavily automated with little input by the designer.
Dec 30, 2019 at 03:29 PM
T says
With regards to John's comment on data entry: the data entry can and should be automated. However, the design and management aspects, including field investigations, high level design, decisions made from years of engineering experience, liaising with a team of multi-disciplinary professionals, and dealing with highly variable conditions at every different site means that this job (for the foreseeable future) is not highly susceptible to automation.
Jul 05, 2019 at 01:49 PM
Tyler Johnson says
That's cool that being a civil engineer would be a very safe job. I would think that there would always be a demand for their services, and it couldn't be done easily by a computer. I'll have to consider that as a career path since I would want a secure job.
Jun 04, 2019 at 07:14 PM
Nennn says
Can a civil engineer earn a high amount of money without changing his track or without starting a business?
Aug 13, 2021 at 09:17 AM
John (Highly likely) says
As an engineer, I spend my days punching in repetitive numbers for various calculations. This seems that it could be easily automated.
Apr 11, 2019 at 11:12 PM
Shekhar says
haha! I think you are still only solving the questions from books.... but in practical life every step of solution have a THE new question which is which is unique solution... therefore human brain he must...
Nov 28, 2020 at 07:25 PM
Mike says
It is interesting that there is only 1.9% of automating civil works jobs. This makes the job pretty safe for now. I'll have to tell more people to pursue it for now.
Mar 25, 2019 at 04:02 PM

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