Show me the money

‘Show me the money’ is a well-known phrase uttered by characters in the 1996 film Jerry Maguire. Money is an important ingredient in job satisfaction, but certainly not the only one!

According to a 2009 survey report, the top five job satisfaction factors for employees are:

Job security
Benefits
Compensation/pay
Opportunities to use skills and abilities
Feeling safe in the work environment.

The 2015 Salary and Benefits Survey has just been published by Personnel for Quality & Nondestructive Testing (PQNDT). I want to share some of the conclusions reached from this survey. The general consensus from the survey is that NDT is a good arena in which to work, especially for full-time employees. Full-time employees were at 89% employment and contractors at 85% at the time the survey was completed.
Based upon my knowledge of the current market conditions, these percentages have most certainly been diminished, especially in the petrochemical sphere, as a result of lower oil prices.

The survey breaks down the job description for the NDT market as follows:

Level I	5%
Level II	29%
Level III	38%
API Visual Inspector	16%
Certified Welding Inspector	12%

Primary industries are:

Aerospace	32%
Construction	10%
Petrochemical	30%
Utility & power	14%
Other	14%

Employment types are:

Full time:
Salaried	43%
Hourly	46%
Contractor	11%

The pay for full-time employees is around $42.46 per hour, while that for contractors is $55.61 per hour, with an average of 9.7 months worked per year and an average of 20.7 hours of overtime per week.

Full-time employees enjoy dental and medical insurance as well as paid annual leave, but contractors do not.

The survey predicts that the NDT employment market will continue to tighten, presenting an increasing challenge to find workers with the right balance of certification and experience. This depends on continued economic recovery. Global issues such as China’s economy, the slowdown in oil production, terrorist attacks, stock market fluctuations and the US presidential election can affect the pace of growth.

Hopefully, this provides some insight into the US NDT job market and a basis for comparison with the UK.

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