webinar

Salary Trends and Employment Projections for Geoscience Careers

Monday, October 3, 2011

Despite the lagging U.S. economy, salaries for aggregated geoscience-related occupations increased by 1.1 percent between 2009 and 2010, while aggregated salaries for all life, physical and social science occupations decreased. Salaries for all U.S. occupations only increased by 0.2 percent between 2009 and 2010. Over the past decade, geoscience salaries have increased between 8 and 27 percent, with the largest increases occurring in natural science manager salaries and petroleum engineering salaries, and the smallest increases in environmental engineering. In 2010, mean annual salaries for geoscience occupations ranged from $129,320 for natural science managers to $67,810 for environmental scientists. Although environmental scientists have the lowest salary of all geoscience occupations, their mean annual salary still exceeds the national average for other science occupations by $1,420. (Note all salaries were normalized to 2010 dollars for year-to-year comparisons). In addition to competitive salaries, geoscience occupations are expected to grow by 23 percent between 2008 and 2018, adding just over 60,000 jobs to the U.S. economy. The majority of the job growth will be in the professional, scientific and technical services sector. This webinar covers the information presented in Geoscience Currents #49-53.

pdf download icon Download presentation slides

Salary Trends and Employment Projections for Geoscience Careers

Canadian Exploration - High Demands for the Future Workforce

Thursday, September 29, 2011

After the presentations, there is a question and answer session where webinar participants ask questions of the speakers.

Our speakers include:

  • Dr. Martha Roberts, from MiHR, who will discuss labour market findings from the exploration study “Unearthing Possibilities”.
  • Scott Jobin-Bevans, from PDAC, who will speak about what’s happening on the ground in the minerals exploration sector, including what PDAC and S-IMEW are. What are the big changes coming up for companies? What’s exciting for new earth/geoscience graduates in the sector and why they should consider a career in minerals exploration?
  • April Bertrand, from GoldCorp Red Lake Gold Mine, who will discuss why she chose this educational path, what she finds exciting about this field, and where she hopes her career will take her.
  • Blake Schreiner, undergraduate student at the University of Saskatchewan, who will discuss why he has chosen this educational path, what he finds exciting about this field, and where he hopes his career will take him.
  • Melanie Sturk, from MiHR, will wrap up our discussion by introducing the Explore for More career resources.

Webinar co-sponsors: Australian Institute of Geoscientists, Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada, Society of Economic Geologists, Inc.

This webinar was co-organized with the Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR)

Canadian Exploration - High Demands For the Future Workforce

Geoscience Careers in Mineral Exploration

Thursday, April 21, 2011

In this webinar, our speakers cover the following topics:

  • How to prepare yourself for a career in minerals exploration. Find out what type of academic background recruiters are looking for in geoscience graduates.
  • An overview of the minerals exploration industry including an explanation of what a junior exploration company does vs. an intermediate sized or major exploration / mining company.
  • Find out what career paths exist in the different types of companies.
  • The future outlook for employment opportunities in the minerals exploration industry.

Our speakers include:

  • Professor Bill Chavez, New Mexico Technical University
  • David Groves, Newmont Mining Corporation
  • M. Steve Enders, Society of Economic Geologists

Webinar Co-sponsors: PreCambrian Research Center, University of Minnesota, Duluth, Australian Institute of Geoscientists, MiHR (Mining Industry Human Resources Council), Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration, Society of Economic Geologists, Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada

Geoscience Careers in Minerals Exploration

A Secure Future for Energy, Environment and Hazard Mitigation: Retaining Students through the Student-to-Professional Continuum in the Geosciences

Monday, April 18, 2011

Roundtable Co-Sponsors: YES Network USA National ChapterSoil Science Society of AmericaAustralian Institute of Geoscientists

The geoscience profession is facing critical human resource issues as a result of its aging workforce and trickle of new graduates entering core geoscience occupations. Since the mid-1990's the geoscience degree completion rates have hovered near 12 percent for undergraduates and near 20 percent for graduate students. Furthermore, data from the National Science Foundation’s 2006 statistical databases indicates that only 30 percent of geoscience graduates work in core geoscience occupations. The majority of the geoscience workforce will be retiring over the next decade and data from federal sources, professional societies, and industry indicate this growing imbalance in the profession’s age demographics. Over the past three years, the age demographics for geoscientists in academia and the federal government indicate an acceleration in the loss of senior geoscientists from the profession.

Because of increasing pressure to address issues such as energy supply, climate and other environmental concerns, and as seen with the Japan disaster, strengthening hazard mitigation, there is an expected 23 percent increase in geoscience jobs over the next decade on top of a wave of nearly 50 percent of existing geoscientists retiring during the same time. The U.S. is beginning to see the loss of fundamental technical skills in the geoscience workforce, both within academia and in the applied sectors. Across all fields, future geoscientists will need solid fundamental skills in both geoscience and mathematics that can be applied to different geoscience challenges including water resources, energy, minerals, hazards and climate issues. Given the current trends, many core and specialty geoscience sub-disciplines that are also economically critical are at risk of extinction. Without properly targeted investment in the retention geoscience university students and the successful transition of geoscience graduates into core geoscience occupations, the sustainability of U.S. geoscience academic infrastructure and pursuit of basic geoscience research is at risk.

This roundtable is a live web-cast. The roundtable will commence with a brief presentation that highlights these main issues and will be followed by Skype chat-based discussion groups on the following topics.

Discussion group focus questions:

  • How do we successfully retain geoscience students in US university programs?
  • How do we successfully transition geoscience graduates into geoscience occupations?

Roundtable moderators will present their discussion group summaries at the end of the roundtable session.

Read the summary report of the discussion groups.

A Secure Future for Energy, Environment, and Hazard Mitigation

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - webinar