Placement Opportunities for Human Factors Engineering and Ergonomics Professionals in Industry and Government/Military Positions

During the period from October 1999 through December 2000, the Placement Service of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society distributed announcements describing 233 new positions available for human factors engineers and ergonomics professionals. This paper describes placement opportunities for HF and ergonomics professionals in industry and government/military (N=220). The attributes of the position descriptions examined include: employment sector, major field of study, degree requirements, required work experience, salary, geographic location, travel, and areas of expertise. The type of industry seeking most employees was Internet based at 33%. The most frequently specified major field of study was human factors (N=124). Fifty-three percent of the positions describe the master's degree as the minimum requirement. The geographical areas with the most jobs were California (N=48) and the Northwest (N=23). Finally, the area of expertise most frequently requested by employers was usability testing and design (N=99) and Human Computer Interaction (N=42) was the most commonly specified job expertise/function.