Resources
2006 – U.S. Space Workforce
The U.S. space industry draws on the expertise of more than a quarter of a million Americans across the country who directly contribute to the economic health of the national economy, many state economies, and local communities.
The U.S. space industry draws on the expertise of more than a quarter of a million Americans across the country who directly contribute to the economic health of the national economy, many state economies, and local communities. Space industry labor market statistics demonstrate this point and show that concentrations of space industry enterprises are geographically dispersed across the United States, from Florida to Colorado to California.
The success of the U.S. space industry hinges on maintaining and cultivating a highly talented cadre of scientists and engineers who comprise the core of the space industry workforce.
The U.S. space industry needs everyone from astronauts to aerospace engineers to space scientists to succeed. Workers and professionals of great technical skill in their chosen disciplines will be required to implement the space exploration vision and other missions in the next five to fifteen years and continue benefiting the entire U.S. economy, state economies, and local communities.
One way to measure the importance of the space industry to the American economy is to examine labor market trends. This is critical because the U.S. space industry must maintain a workforce strategy for ensuring that it is able to target, attract, train, and retain the skilled personnel necessary to engage in space exploration.
There is deep concern that the future workforce required for the U.S. space industry to prosper is not being trained adequately. The present level of achievement in science and technology relative to other countries potentially places the U.S. space industry at risk, as it requires a highly skilled and technically trained workforce to thrive.
This workforce manufactures a range of space products such as space vehicle propulsion units and space vehicle parts. It also provides satellite telecommunications services. Additionally, the space industry workforce detailed here includes those civilian government workers involved in space research and technology, working for agencies such as NASA.
The importance of space activity to the U.S. economy goes beyond direct space industry employment and the high wages paid to skilled space industry workers. The benefits of the U.S. space industry include:
- spawning numerous other industries
- generating billions of dollars for the American economy
- producing more than 1,500 documented products derived from activities related to space technology such as satellite radio and television, mobile phone technology, and global positioning navigation for the family car, providing an immeasurable return on America’s investment in this important industry.2
Ultimately, the U.S. space industry produces such indirect benefits as new technologies, medical advances, and a host of fresh consumer products.
The broader economic benefits produced by the nation’s space sector are even more impressive when one considers that these advances are being driven by a cadre of just under 270,000 skilled workers directly employed in the core sectors that make up today’s space industry. These workers constitute the heart of the vibrant U.S. space sector, and their ranks are growing. Almost 17,000 space industry jobs have been added nationwide since 2003, employment growth that is expected to continue.
Adding significance to this growth in core space industry employment, the U.S. space industry workforce is well compensated, due in part to the high skill and educational level of most space industry workers and to the demand for their skills. The U.S. space industry’s annual average wage was $88,200 in 2006. This was more than double the 2006 private sector average wage of $42,400. The U.S. space industry payroll reached $23.5 billion in 2006.
Workers in technical occupations such as aerospace engineering support the work of the nation’s space community. In 2006, there were almost 90,000 Americans working as aerospace engineers. Many of these engineers work in the space industry. These skilled and highly educated professionals earned an impressive average wage of $89,300 in 2006.