Chemical engineering has consistently been one of the highest paid engineering professions. There is a demand for chemical engineers in many sectors of industry, including the traditional processing industries: chemicals, polymers, fuels, foods, pharmaceuticals, and paper, as well as other sectors such as electronic materials and devices, consumer products, mining and metals extraction, biomedical implants, and power generation.

The reason that companies in such a diverse range of industries value chemical engineers so highly is the following:

Starting from a vaguely defined problem statement such as a customer need or a set of experimental results, chemical engineers can develop an understanding of the important underlying physical science relevant to the problem and use this understanding to create a plan of action and set of detailed specifications which, if implemented, will lead to a predicted financial outcome.