
Depends on the specialty
EE they're not too important in some areas (although some aerospace companies (Ball, Rockwell, Martin) used to encourage and require them for certain levels of responsibility as I recall).
Civil, Mech, Mining, Petro, Chem, you can't hardly work without a PE or at least EIT working towards PE. In general, anytime you are doing work that affects public safety, you can't sign off on it without a PE.
I am out of the country for the duration of the Bush administration.
Please leave a message and I'll get back to you when democracy returns.