ASCE Reveals the Best Places to Be a Civil Engineer

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has just published its annual list of the best places to be a civil engineer, a roundup that includes several smaller or mid-sized markets that weren’t previously featured in the top 10.

The latest ASCE list ranks U.S. cities based on the ASCE Salary Report and Council for Community and Economic Research (CCER) cost-of-living numbers. Unlike previous years, ASCE did not factor in job availability data.

The top five cities for civil engineers are:

1. Houston

2. Omaha

3. Cleveland

4. Baltimore

5. Atlanta

In light of the top city list, ASCE recognizes that 2025 is the era of the “your laptop is your office” environment, and the importance of job location might be at an all-time low.

“In my view, the pandemic really shifted everyone,” said Brenan Pool, ASCE, architectural engineer. “And I’m not telling you anything new, but everyone can remote-work from anywhere they want. It’s kind of a free bag for everyone, especially with our current industry. Engineers are in very high demand as everyone knows, so you see a lot of engineers very much job-hopping everywhere that they can to get the best bang for their buck and usefulness out of their degrees. And you see a lot of people moving to the mid- or smaller-sized markets.”