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Data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey provides monthly occupational employment data to examine changes in geoscience employment over time. The chart shows monthly occupational data from January 2019 through January 2026.

The monthly average number of working geoscientists in the United States was 333,521 as of January 2026, a slight decline of 1% (3,646) since December 2025. While employment across most geoscience occupations contracted slightly during this period, increases were seen in the environmental science and geoscience technicians, geoscience engineering managers, and conservation scientists occupations. Note that employment trends in environmental science and geoscience technician occupations are traditionally volatile due to work stops/starts, contract cycles, weather, etc.

The data for the chart below is available in Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) format: Monthly Geoscience Employment

About the data used in this chart:

Data is sourced from the US Census Bureau CPS Basic Monthly microdata file. The Current Population Survey (CPS) is a monthly survey of U.S. households conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational data reported by the CPS describes a person’s job or the type of work they did during the reporting period, not their specific job title.

Note: No employment data is available for October 2025. See Footnote 25 at https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cps/data/datasets/cps-basic-footnotes.html