Workforce
2009 – U.S. Space Industry Outlook – Snapshot
The most authoritative source of U.S. space industry workforce data is the Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. space industry core employment is measured by assessing the six BLS North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes detailed in Exhibit 4b. While NAICS codes reflect an official U.S. government approach to understanding and measuring employees and salaries, in some cases NAICS codes combine workers from different industry sectors under the same labor category, complicating an exact labor count.
2009 – U.S. Space Industry Employment – Snapshot
According to data published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), more than a quarter million Americans are employed in the space industry. The most recent (2006) estimate by the Federal Aviation Administration Office of Commercial Space Transportation calculates the combined direct and indirect value of the U.S. space industry, including the secondary and tertiary economic activities it enables, at approximately $## billion.
2009 – South Korean Workforce – Snapshot
One of the most important stated goals of the South Korean space program is to develop domestic aerospace capabilities, specifically the capacity to manufacture and launch satellites. South Korea hopes to do this by investing in aerospace research and development and by strategically leveraging international partnerships.
2008 – Official U.S. Workforce Statistics
The Space Report 2009 identifies nine occupations particularly relevant to the U.S. space industry. They are shown in Exhibit 4i. These ## occupations not only comprise a diversified set of skills required to create a foundation for space activity, they also reflect the need to build space-related human capital through postsecondary education.
2008 – U.S. Space Industry Salaries
As Exhibit 4e shows, the combined average annual salary across the six core U.S. space industry sectors analyzed was $## in 2007, nearly double the average salary of U.S. professionals in the average private sector overall. For the first time on record, professionals in the federal space research and space vehicle manufacturing sectors earned an average salary above six figures, more than $##, or 2.3 times that of the average U.S. private sector worker.
2008 – U.S. Space Industry Employment
Employment in every sector of the U.S. space industry analyzed in The Space Report 2009 grew between 2003 and 2007 with the exception of satellite telecommunications. The end of the telecom bubble in 2000 and 2001 prompted restructuring within the satellite telecommunications industry, including consolidation among operators.
2008 – Trends and Events Affecting U.S. Employment
The estimate of U.S. space industry core employment calculated in The Space Report 2009 is derived from the total of the most recent workforce numbers from the ## North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes in Exhibit 4b, below. As Exhibit 4c shows, ## Americans worked in the space industry in 2007.
2008 – U.S. Space Industry Outlook
The impact of the 2008 credit crisis on space industry employment levels cannot yet be measured with the statistics available. Through 2007, whether U.S. space employment and earnings potential is measured by the six core space industry segments or by the nine key space-related occupations profiled here, it is clear that U.S. space professionals enjoy high salaries and real wage growth.
2008 – Workforce
Investment in space creates measurable benefits that flow across a wide spectrum of economic activity. The greatest investment that the space industry can make is in its people. The global space economy creates high-paying jobs and also stimulates demand for products and services in industries not directly linked to space.
2008 – U.S. Space Workforce – Snapshot
In 2007, nearly ## U.S. personnel were employed in the space industry. A 2008 U.S. government report estimated that approximately ## U.S. workers were indirectly employed in the provision of primary, secondary, and tertiary goods and services related to space.