Rileys Freaky Fridays

That’s because engineers are not expected to do original work in their jobs - a PhD is a research degree, while a masters is just advanced coursework. While advanced coursework in engineering will get you a good engineering position, advanced coursework in physics is just a step towards getting the research degree. You can certainly a job with a masters in physics, and I know people who have, but if you’re just going to stop at the masters you might as well do engineering. If you’re going into physics, it’s usually assumed you want to do your own research.

Eri has a good answer but to clarify one point - Masters degrees in many fields are research based or can be. I have a Masters in Botany and while I did the non-thesis option and took three years of coursework along with a special project that was not a research project, most of my classmates were involved in thesis research. I know this is not necessarily the same in Physics or Engineering.