What can you do with an electrical engineering degree?
Where electrical engineering graduates actually work, and how exposed those jobs are to AI. Built from ACS 2020-2024 5-year PUMS: 57,498 people whose bachelor's degree is in this field, aged 22-64.
Electrical engineering is a degree where more graduates work in software than in electrical engineering. About 14 in 100 people with an electrical engineering bachelor's degree work as software developers, and about 11 in 100 work as electrical and electronics engineers. Smaller groups, roughly 1 to 3 in 100 each, are architectural and engineering managers, computer and information systems managers, civil engineers, project management specialists, mechanical engineers, management analysts and aerospace engineers. Electricians are under 1 in 100.
About 42 in 100 work in jobs we cannot score. The largest gaps are other engineers at about 8 in 100, managers in other roles at about 6 in 100, chief executives at about 2 in 100 and postsecondary teachers at about 2 in 100. This page covers about 58% of electrical engineering graduates. The figures come from Census data on more than 57,000 people with the degree.
The neighboring degree computer engineering leads to many of the same software jobs.
How exposed are electrical engineering jobs to AI?
About three quarters of the scored graduates, 76%, work in jobs we rate At risk, led by software developers and electrical and electronics engineers. Another 15% work in jobs we rate AI-resistant despite the paperwork, such as civil engineers and aerospace engineers. That leans toward At risk, but our rule needs jobs covering at least 60% of graduates before it gives a degree-level verdict, and this page covers 58%.
The largest gap, other engineers at about 8 in 100, is bigger than any other single group we cannot score. We therefore give no overall verdict and our confidence is insufficient. At risk would describe how exposed the jobs are, not what has happened to electrical engineering graduates.
These figures cover the 58% of electrical engineering graduates who work in occupations we score. The other 42% work in roles we do not cover (largest: Other Engineers; Other Managers; Chief Executives and Legislators). Signal 01 averages each job's own structural exposure, weighted by how many graduates work there; it describes tasks, not whether jobs will disappear.
Where electrical engineering graduates actually work
These 10 occupations account for 51% of electrical engineering graduates. The rest are spread across many smaller occupations, each under 1%. Graduates often work outside the field.
Careers next door to electrical engineering, least exposed first
Curated related careers of the main occupations above, ranked by structural exposure (lowest first), so you can see which neighboring routes are less and more exposed.
What the research says about AI and electrical engineering graduates
Electrical engineering has less field-specific evidence than its software neighbors. The Census Bureau working paper (September 2026) places it in the top exposure decile of its Table A3 ranking, alongside computer science and computer engineering, but its 2024 results for recent graduates are mild: an employment coefficient of -0. 011 and an earnings coefficient of +0. 016, against -0. 061 and -0. 190 for computer science.
The coefficients are centered at zero and compare 2024 with 2022, so electrical engineering does not stand out the way computer science does. The Dallas Fed names computer science, computer engineering and languages as most exposed, not electrical engineering, and Employ America does not mention it. The studies disagree about how much of any graduate weakness is due to AI, so the evidence is contested, and none of them singles out electrical engineering as a problem field.
Read the full evidence review: what the studies say about AI and graduate jobs →
Degrees whose graduates work in similar jobs
How this page was built
Graduate shares come from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS 2020-2024 5-year PUMS), field of degree "Electrical Engineering" (code 2408), weighted to the population. Each occupation we cover is scored with the numbers already published on its own page on this site, then averaged by graduate share. Occupations without a page are shown but never scored. Graduates aged 22-64 are included, so the mix reflects the whole working-age group, not only recent graduates. The survey records the most recent occupation of people who were not working when surveyed (unemployed or out of the labor force), and they are counted in it: across the degrees on this site that is about 9 in 100 graduates, between 6 and 13 in 100 depending on the degree, so "work as" on this page means "work or last worked as". Sources: www2.census.gov, www.bls.gov, www2.census.gov, www.dallasfed.org, www.nber.org, employamerica.org. This page is general information, not career or educational advice.