- Recent government data shows the rate of job growth within the space economy has outpaced the broader labor market, with younger workers in particular being beneficiaries.
- Salaries in the sector are relatively high, and there are many open positions for workers with degrees and experience in fields including engineering and information security.
- There remains a large imbalance in labor supply and demand, especially in skilled manufacturing positions such as machinists and welders.
Clearly, there's money to be made in space. SpaceX's historic initial public offering minted a $2 trillion company. And even as
shares in Elon Musk's company come down from their IPO high, there remains an underlying boom in the space economy that is creating a new job market for Americans.
The space economy is growing domestically and around the globe, at an annual
rate of 9%, according to the World Economic Forum. In the U.S., gross output in the space economy increased by nearly $51.5 billion from 2012 to 2023. The sector's total value reached an all-time high of $613 billion in Q2 2025, according to the Space Foundation.
As the space economy grows, it is spurring national job creation. In the private sector alone, over 373,000 employees work space-sector jobs, according to the most recent estimates from the Labor Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis. That remains a small fraction of the total U.S. private-sector workforce, but one that is growing rapidly. Space-sector employment
increased by 27% in the decade through 2024, far outpacing total private-sector employment growth at 14%, and with its rate of growth accelerating in the more recent years. From 2019 to 2024 alone, the space economy's job market grew by 18%.
Young workers in particular have played a major role in this growth.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly half of the new jobs being added to the space economy are filled by workers under the age of 35, accounting for a 3% total increase in young workers' share of its workforce from 2014 to 2024. Across most major lines of work in the space sector, there has been an increase in the share of young workers employed. That means the sector isn't just growing, but also defying the trend of decreasing young worker share seen throughout other Census-surveyed sectors, including professional services and media.
Dean Boerner, a lead data scientist at Revelio Labs, found in his recent research looking across tens of thousands of postings from hundreds of space sector companies that the industry is significantly outperforming the broader labor market in providing current career opportunities.
"Active postings by companies operating within the space economy are up more than 40% year-over-year as of this month (and have generally been elevated this entire year, compared to 2025)," Boerner said. "U.S. postings overall are down about 5%, making the rise in opportunities within aerospace particularly striking," he added.
Compensation for aerospace-centered work is attractive. The private space sector boasts a combined annual payroll of around $57.9 billion, with median annual salaries varying by occupation, but typically within the range of $100,000 to $135,000. Base salaries, however, are only one part of the employee compensation packages seen in the private sector. Large private space market employers often offer stock options, giving employees the opportunity to get in early on what could become a major publicly-traded company. In the case of SpaceX's historic IPO, thousands of current and former employees
became millionaires overnight thanks to their pre-owned shares. Over 100 saw a newfound net worth of over $1 billion.
"This job market is competitive, often with thousands of applications for each entry-level role," said Dave Baldwin, director of talent acquisition at
Firefly Aerospace, which went public last August.
And yet, thousands of positions at these companies remain unfilled on any given day. In fact, despite the attractive roles and seemingly promising upward trends in an increasingly lucrative field, employment in the space economy has largely failed to keep pace with industry scaling. Space sector companies of all varieties, in recent years, have seen prolonged hiring periods, high employee turnover rates, and persistent labor shortages. One reason is that the work relies heavily on highly skilled labor, disproportionately within the realm of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
Recent estimates indicate that
over half of private-sector space economy jobs "require STEM skills," approximately double the national average. STEM skills, as important as they are, pose a real hurdle for firms looking to recruit and retain new talent. Only about a quarter of the American workforce has formal STEM training, a far smaller fraction of which has the specific vocational background needed in aerospace production. For employers building out their presence in the space economy, this means continually competing for the select pool of workers who possess the skillsets needed to sustain current operations and long-term growth.
SpaceX, in its own
S-1 filing ahead of its IPO, acknowledged this issue as a potential risk for investors, stating: "We depend on our ability to recruit and retain employees who have advanced engineering and technical skills, and intense competition for such employees may increase costs and affect our ability to meet development and production timelines."
"The current tight labor market has adversely impacted our ability to recruit qualified personnel, including engineers, particularly with respect to our AI segment," the filing noted, underscoring the challenges posed by rapid space economy expansion.
Revelio Labs' data shows the magnitude of the issue, with the 45% delta in active postings between the sector and the rest of the economy (40% growth in postings for space jobs and 5% decline for all U.S. jobs).
Several active, high-profile employers in the aerospace sector are at the forefront of hiring struggles.
Lockheed Martin has the second-most open postings among all employers, with 10,614, a figure that has increased by over 5,000 from this time last year. RTX Corp leads all employers with 12,871 openings globally. According to Boerner, the most in-demand roles are, in order, Safety Engineer, Information Security, Integration Engineer, Reliability Engineer, and Hardware Engineer, with each role requiring at least a bachelor's degree in a related field of study.
A 2025
Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) report, carried out in collaboration with McKinsey & Co., found that the attrition rate for the aerospace industry, from 2021 through 2024, sat at nearly 16%, over 10% higher than any other industry category. Seventy-six percent of all AIA member organizations worldwide reported "sustained challenges" in consistently hiring engineers.
Skilled labor for space manufacturing is in short supply
The labor challenges in the sector also extend to key manufacturing roles, with 56% of the organizations reporting challenges in hiring and sourcing skilled manufacturing talent.
Nearly 30% of the work that takes place in the space economy revolves around skilled manufacturing, labor that is necessary for the production of space vehicles, space weapons, and satellites.
Satellites, in particular, have been driving recent growth as the space markets shift away from exploration, at least in the near-term, and to commercialization. In 2024, according to Space Foundation estimates, the commercial space products and services industry comprised well over half of the economy's total value, a shift largely attributed to the enhancement and expansion of
satellite technology. It's a trend that is being supported by the value of satellite-based data across the global economy, for example, in optimizing fleet routing in unprecedented ways and improving globalized supply chains, allowing companies to make their industrial capacity more efficient and extend their global consumer reach.
But the industry doesn't have a monopoly on the talent that is required.
"The challenge is there's a limited pool of machinists, welders, and technicians to meet the demand," Baldwin said. "There are multiple industries (e.g., automotive, semiconductor, biotech) in addition to aerospace that are competing for the same types of skilled workers," he added.
For Firefly and peer space economy employers, investing in early talent at the right stages is a critical issue. The AIA report revealed that among space sector companies struggling with hiring and retention, just 20% had taken steps to develop or expand training programs. In fact, creating and expanding training programs lagged behind referral bonuses for current employees, increasing geographic recruitment areas, and changing compensation models.
"It's critical for commercial space companies to partner with local high schools, community colleges, and universities to develop skill-based programs and help increase the supply of available skilled labor," Baldwin said. "We've been scaling up these efforts at Firefly, providing the opportunity to get hands-on experience working on proven launch, lunar, and in-space programs. We also offer training and apprenticeships to help veterans transition into the workforce as part of the DoD
SkillBridge Program." Club for the Future, an early education foundation established under the Jeff Bezos-led space company Blue Origin in 2019, states its mission as "to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM and to help invent the future of life in space."
Since 2021, the foundation has donated tens of millions of dollars to educational programs alongside space-based charities. Nearly every large private aerospace manufacturer funds extensive internship programs year-round, although the programs tend to be extremely competitive, and their frequency wanes among smaller employers.
While SpaceX is likely to remain a volatile stock, it is becoming more embedded in the market, soon to be
added to the Nasdaq 100 index. If SpaceX bulls are correct, the early education investments will pay off in the decades ahead for employers and the workforce. Early SpaceX investor Ron Baron says the company will grow more quickly than many people expect. The billionaire fund manager recently told CNBC he didn't sell a share in the IPO and expects the company to be valued in 10 years at a minimum of $20 trillion. "Normally, our economy doubles roughly every 10 years," Baron told CNBC's Becky Quick. "What he thinks is, by the innovations and the work that he's doing, he's going to make the economy grow 10 times in 10 years, not double."
<small>Source: CNBC</small>
Business
SpaceX stock has cooled. Hiring for jobs in the space economy hasn't
CNBC
June 27, 2026
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