Employment Growth in Geoscience-related Occupations Over the Past Decade

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Date updated: 2011-09-26
Data Brief 2011-012
Written and compiled by Leila Gonzales for AGI, September 2011

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Over the past year, aggregate employment in geoscience-related occupations has remained relatively steady. A few occupations (environmental engineers, mining and geological engineers, environmental scientists, geoscientists, and hydrologists) have seen a slight contraction in occupational employment between 2009 and 2010. Employment increased between 2009 and 2010 for geoscience natural science managers (+15%), geographers (+11%), and petroleum engineers (+10%).

Between 2001 and 2010, employment in geoscience-related occupations has increased by 52,377 (29%) with the largest growth occurring in petroleum engineering occupations. Since 2001, employment in petroleum engineering has increased by 16,790 (147%), with the majority of the growth occurring since 2007. Employment in two geoscience-related occupations has decreased over the past decade: hydrologists (-430) and geoscience engineering managers (-580) at -6 percent and -4 percent respectively.

View an in-depth discussion of this information in the corresponding Geoscience Currents Discussion Webinar.

Change in employment in science occupations 2009-2010 and 2001-2010.

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