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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 December 2025.

The monthly average number of working geoscientists in the United States was 337,167 as of December 2025, up by 3% (10,634) since November 2025. Increases seen over this period are driven in part by the environmental science and geoscience technicians and the atmospheric and space scientists occupations. Note that employment trends in both of these 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