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Space Businesses

Space Industry Is Growing Faster Than Its Workforce, Analysts Say (extremetech.com) 69

Posted by BeauHD from the trouble-ahead dept.
Analysts are concerned that a lack of skilled labor in the space industry "could impact aerospace's growth in recent years, putting key projects on hold or preventing space startups from gaining traction," reports ExtremeTech. From the report: According to the Space Foundation's annual Space Report, job opportunities within the U.S. space industry have grown 18% over the past five years. Meanwhile, American colleges saw a decline in engineering students across the same period, prompting the industry to wonder whether the workforce could keep up with demand. Indeed, the Space Foundation says only 17% of NASA's workforce is under 35; not only does the agency tend to hire workers who have accumulated a lot of experience, but there aren't as many young professionals under consideration as there could be.

The industry isn't just short on engineers, though. Although STEM degrees requiring an intimate familiarity with astronomy, physics, robotics, computing, mathematics, and other technical topics are certainly one path toward space, the industry relies on workers proficient in a much wider range of skills. Welders, electricians, crane operators, and other blue-collar workers are essential to manufacturing and ground operations. In contrast, marketers, PR representatives, bookkeepers, lawyers, and other office workers keep things running in the background. In fact, as of writing, SpaceX is even hiring a barista.

As Space Foundation CEO Tom Zelibor put it in the nonprofit's Q1 2023 report, the space industry might benefit from informing the public of the benefits of space exploration. These benefits are apparent to some, but others find space exploration nonessential or frivolous. Other people interested in the space industry might be scared off from pursuing it as a career, thanks to its reputation for requiring advanced degrees and mathematical prowess. From the Space Foundation's own educational projects to those run by The Planetary Society and Space for Humanity, public outreach could be the key to bolstering industry engagement. The report notes that the "space economy" has ballooned to $464 billion (up 159% from 2010) and is predicted to reach a $1 trillion valuation by 2030, according to some analysts.
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Space Industry Is Growing Faster Than Its Workforce, Analysts Say More

Space Industry Is Growing Faster Than Its Workforce, Analysts Say

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  • "Analysts are concerned that a lack of skilled labor in the space industry "could impact aerospace's growth in recent years, putting key projects on hold or preventing space startups from gaining traction,"

    I'm pretty sure "recent" always refer to the immediate past. Looking forward, one should refer to the "near" or "immediate" future.

  • Any WFH Opportunities? (Score:3)

    by NoWayNoShapeNoForm ( 7060585 ) on Saturday September 16, 2023 @03:30AM (#63852906)

    When will SpaceX post these jobs as "Work From Home" ?

    Asking for a 50+ year old friend that has no kids ...

    • There may be security issues with that. If at least some of your work includes stuff with security clearance requirements, surely you won't be able to bring it home.

      • "Welder" and "Crane Operator" are hard to make home-work, too.

      • Security clearances only apply to government work, and for the most part only to Department of Defense work (there are others, but they aren't nearly as much work as the DoD has). Little, if any, work being by NASA would be classified, and definitely nothing being done by private companies would be.

        • Security clearances only apply to government work, and for the most part only to Department of Defense work

          So you're suggesting that the company should hire an employee without a clearance for most of the work, but then hire a second person to do the same job for DoD? Isn't it more efficient to hire a cleared employee even if said employee needs clearance only for a part of his work?

          • I don't really understand your point. Are you assuming that it would be the same work for a private company as classified work for the DoD? Basically by definition, that same work can't be classified, since it's already publicly known (in this context, even trade secrets would be considered "publicly" known).
      • Since NASA has a new director in charge of UFO / UAP research, there must be people working for them. Researching old X-Files episodes and reading the National Enquirer certainly could be done at home. I think your mother's basement would be an excellent work location.
        • Did the new NASA director touch you in the wrong places, or was this weird comment out of nowhere inspired by something else?

  • Tough work (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    But at least it's not rocket science

  • What's the point? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by monkeyxpress ( 4016725 ) on Saturday September 16, 2023 @05:12AM (#63852952)

    To do old school engineering like space stuff, you have to have people who are incentivised to build a career. They need to do a lot of academic training, and then get some decent vocational training. After a considerable number of years doing that you have people who are, say, specialised in composite matrix failure analysis at cryogenic temperatures or something like that. You simply can not produce these sorts of skilled workers in a couple of years at night school.

    But thanks to the govt/Fed we have a stupid short termist economy now, where we incentive everyone to get rich quick. Oh, the economy is failing, quick lets throw money at the housing market so that it turns into a giant rentseeking dystopia. Then the crypto market. Then the billion dollar money burning unicorn tech startup conveyor belt.

    Everyone knows someone who has made out like a bandit, not because of their hardworking and skill, but because they played the 'markets' right, and mostly that means they either attached themselves to the most distasteful scammy tech bro hypefest they could find, or they lucked out on owning houses or crypto assets at the right time.

    Meanwhile, where I am, nurses and new doctors are struggling to afford housing.

    So now they're asking why the best and brightest aren't prepared to spend 10 years grinding away to become useful workers for the space industry. Sounds like they need to pay some MBAs at McKinseys $500k a year to find some unpaid STEMs interns who will write a report about it.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by DarkOx ( 621550 )

      Meanwhile, where I am, nurses and new doctors are struggling to afford housing.

      The problem with these types of statements is the underlying assumption that your personal value assignment to this work is superior to that of the market. Maybe society just does not value expert medical care as much as some crypto-gambling scheme, that just is you don't have to make it good or bad.

      If doctors can't afford housing, the answer is simple there is an over supply of medical care. People will start to pay more and start to patronize doctors that charge over and above what HMOs will pay when the

      • If doctors can't afford housing, the answer is simple there is an over supply of medical care.

        For every question, there is an answer that is simple, stupid, and wrong, which you have just aptly demonstrated. 3 minutes of Google search plus about 10 minutes of reading would have told you that young doctors struggle financially out of med school due to the systemic failures and perverse economic incentives, none of which are easy to fix, even for doctors in fields that are underserved (like GPs.)

      • If doctors can't afford housing, the answer is simple there is an over supply of medical care.

        For every complex question there are any number of answers which are simple, stupid, and wrong. You have discovered one of them.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by DarkOx ( 621550 )

          Yeah because parroting bromides as a reponse makes you look smart. No wait it shows you to be the bird-brain that you are.

          There are lots medical practices with GPs where you can pay to subscribe to get access. This isnt covered by any sort of medical plan. The doctors working at these places see fewer patients and earn more. Why because people will pay for care. The fact is to many doctors enter the profession who are willing to work for relative peanuts vs the investment they must make and will sign on a

          • There is no oversupply of medical personnel. The AMA (which represents less than 40% of doctors) has successfully lobbied to keep artificial and insane impediments in the way of hiring more doctors so as to keep up wages for the less-than-half that they do represent, and to increase their own importance.

            What IS happening is that there is an undersupply of housing. Housing is being destroyed [brookings.edu] faster than it is being replaced [theatlantic.com], and the supply is further reduced by investment and airbnb [themortgagereports.com] (in which there is substa

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by DarkOx ( 621550 )

              Again you are just projecting your values onto the market place.

              Current FACTS:
              Somoene can afford those houses or is willing to hold them!

              People are willing to live in area with the current cost and availability of medical services, or housing costs would decline..

              Other economic activities besides the direct practice of medicine are being more greatly valued, otherwise people would not be able to afford all that housing the doctors are unable too.

              -
              You don't have to like it, but it is what it is. If Doctors w

              • "Current FACTS:
                Somoene can afford those houses or is willing to hold them!"

                Yeah, an investment bank, or someone who is airbnbing them. But that's a point against your argument, not in support.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by The Cat ( 19816 )

        > Anyone can come up with a plot outline.

        You're absolutely right. And anyone did. That neatly explains the quality of television and film for the last 4-5 years.

  • Bullet, meet foot (Score:5, Interesting)

    by TJHook3r ( 4699685 ) on Saturday September 16, 2023 @05:36AM (#63852970)
    This is what happens when you degrade education, neglect engineering and erode middle-class standards of living. On purely practical terms, an engineering student has to be really, really passionate about engineering to avoid going into the energy sector, IT or finance - all of which pay cold, hard cash. Space industry has probably not been on any careers advice list for a good 30 years!

    • This is what happens when you degrade education, neglect engineering and erode middle-class standards of living.

      You mean when you favor "gender studies" and graduate as many pronoun experts as possible? I agree.

  • Well, I'll be a red hat wearing voter. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SlashDotCanSuckMy777 ( 6182618 ) on Saturday September 16, 2023 @05:36AM (#63852972)

    Turns out shitting on Colleges and Universities to "own the libs!" has consequences.

    • Turns out shitting on Colleges and Universities to "own the libs!" has consequences.

      The colleges and universities that are turning out the useless lumps of non-engineers have been run by "the libs" since ... oh yeah, since right about after the successful moon missions.

      Own it. You run everything, and have for a LONG time. The failures are all yours. You are graduating pronoun experts, not people capable of running space ventures.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Z80a ( 971949 )

        "the libs" changed massively since 2014 or so.
        It's like the stupidest ideas from both the left and right are being amplified 100 fold to make politics in general ineffective, dumb and irrelevant.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tragedy ( 27079 )

        I personally value engineering, math and science but I have serious objections to the idea that the only purpose of education is to churn out engineers.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DarkOx ( 621550 )

      Yeah but only positive ones.

      There is no value in cranking out more graduates with degrees in post modernist bullshit critical theory. Nobody needs degree to imagine and assign motives to past actors who can't speak for themselves. When university was mostly about studying the natural world and human behavior rather than assigning victim-hood and rewriting history they were useful. Now they produce people who literally only serve as distractions to drain resources and keep us from better things.

      The anti-aca

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by godrik ( 1287354 )

        It's funny you say that, because humanities department have been losing enrollment for DECADES now. And that to the profit of STEM and Business degrees. You hear about these weirder humanities degrees BECAUSE they have been losing enrollment, and so that is an effort to innovate.

        What the anti-academic movement has done is cut funding to universities and STEM as the largest units. STEM is way less funded today than 20 years ago, (raw resources have gone up, but we have WAY more students). So overall we can't

  • Should everyone have a degree in Aerospace Engineering?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by g01d4 ( 888748 )
      Indeed it seems to be the same hype with even more smoke and mirror financial justification behind it. You've got Musk mostly launching his own satellites plus a few other wannabes barely floating on a steady trickle of government contracts for science and military applications. Not quite the Sputnik moment or race to the Moon. Not many old timers in the industry left who know how well the race to the Moon turned out after "mission accomplished".

  • In reality (tm) (Score:3)

    by glatiak ( 617813 ) on Saturday September 16, 2023 @07:33AM (#63853058)

    Sounds like the venture capitalists and sales folks have been busy spinning their yarns. Its going to be wonderful. All they need are some actual workers and tangible products and they will be golden. Sigh...

  • Once AI unemploys 80% of the populace, they can go work for SpaceX et al.

    Ironic, ain't it?

  • How many bullshit pieces of certification paper do I need to collect to become an official Space Asshole [youtube.com]?

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