2012
2012 – European Space Agency Employment
The European Space Agency (ESA) employs a staff of about ##, more than half of which are scientists, engineers, or astronauts. About ##% of the workforce is under 35, a significantly smaller portion than NASA’s ##%. The percentage of individuals within ESA that are over 54 is ##%, which is somewhat below NASA’s ##%.
2012 – European Space Industry Employment
The European space workforce includes workers from ## European countries across three segments of the industry: spacecraft, launch, and ground. The five countries with the largest workforces, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Spain, accounted for more than ##% of the total European space workforce in 2011. The workforce numbers include industries involved in designing, developing, and manufacturing space systems in the spacecraft, launch, and ground sectors. The numbers do not include the workforce of companies developing consumer devices, such as GPS or satellite television receivers, nor do they include employment by companies that carry out space services based on the exploitation of space assets, such as launch service providers.
2012 – U.S. Space Industry Outlook
The U.S. BLS Employment Projections program develops information about the U.S. labor market 10 years in the future. The most recent projections provide estimates of growth in specific occupations from 2010 to 2020. The occupational titles used by BLS for employment projections are not the same as the NAICS codes used by BLS in its Quarterly Census of Wages and Employment, discussed above.
2012 – NASA Geographical Distribution
Although NASA’s workforce remained relatively stable, layoffs related to the Space Shuttle program continued. It is estimated that more than ## individuals associated with the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida lost their jobs after the last shuttle launched in July 2011, and layoffs continued into 2012.
2012 – NASA Demographics
As of the beginning of fiscal year (FY) 2013, NASA employed ## individuals, a decrease of ##% from the start of FY 2012. This is just ##% below the average number of NASA employees from FY 2003 to FY 2013, reflecting the relative stability of NASA’s workforce since FY 2003. More than ##% of NASA’s workforce consists of scientists and engineers.
2012 – U.S. National Security Workforce
The military uses space for a wide variety of purposes, including communication, navigation, mapping, and intelligence. The military space workforce is specifically trained to be able to plan, develop, acquire, or operate defense-related space technology. The Air Force maintains the largest space workforce, with ## individuals in 2011.
2012 – U.S. Space Industry Salaries
The space workforce consistently commands high average annual salaries; in 2012 the average space salary was $##. These high salaries reflect, in part, the fact that space jobs often require advanced skills and high levels of educational attainment.
2012 – Trends and Events Affecting U.S. Employment
Trends among the six sectors examined have remained fairly consistent over time, with the Guided Missile and Space Vehicle Manufacturing and Federal Space Research and Technology categories increasing over periods of 1, 5, and 10 years.
2012 – U.S. Space Industry Employment
There are hundreds of space companies distributed throughout the United States, including small businesses with fewer than 50 employees and large organizations with thousands of individuals. A sample of these companies is provided in Exhibit 4c.
2012 – Official U.S. Workforce Statistics
The U.S. space workforce declined by ##% from 2010 to 2011, continuing a five-year trend of annual decreases, with the total now approximately ##% below the average employment level from 2001 to 2011. NASA’s civil service workforce remained relatively steady. Layoffs related to the end of the Space Shuttle program continued to affect former shuttle contractors through 2012, although there were signs of recovery in some space-centric regions by the end of the year.