U.S. space economy hiring outpaces broader labor market as skills gap persists

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US space economy hiring trends

Highlights

Space economy employment grew 27% over the past decade, outpacing 14% private-sector growth, with sector gross output reaching $613 billion in Q2 2025.
Active job postings by space economy companies rose over 40% year over year versus a 5% decline in U.S. postings overall, yet thousands of positions remain unfilled as annual payroll stands at about $57.9 billion.
Aerospace companies like Lockheed Martin and RTX Corp face severe STEM and skilled manufacturing talent shortages, with industry attrition at nearly 16%, over 10% higher than other sectors.

Job growth and pay stay resilient

As reported by CNBC, recent government and industry data shows space economy employment is expanding faster than the broader U.S. labor market as companies continue to recruit for technical and security-related roles. The World Economic Forum says the global and domestic space economy is growing at an annual rate of 9%, while the Space Foundation reports U.S. gross output in the sector rose by nearly $51.5 billion from 2012 to 2023 and reached $613 billion in the second quarter of 2025.

More than 373,000 employees work in space-sector jobs, based on estimates from the Labor Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis. That marks a 27% increase over the past decade, compared with 14% growth in private-sector employment overall, and from 2019 to 2024 the sector's job market grew by 18%, with nearly half of new roles filled by workers under 35.

Dean Boerner, lead data scientist at Revelio Labs, says active job postings by space economy companies increased by more than 40% year over year, while U.S. postings overall are down about 5%. Annual payroll across the private space sector stands at about $57.9 billion, with median annual salaries typically ranging from $100,000 to $135,000, yet thousands of positions remain open.

Manufacturing and STEM shortages weigh on expansion

The hiring challenge remains most acute in highly skilled positions. More than half of private-sector space economy jobs require STEM skills, and aerospace companies are struggling to hire and retain qualified engineers as demand rises across the industry.

Lockheed Martin and RTX Corp are among major employers with thousands of unfilled openings. Competition for talent is also intensifying because automotive, semiconductor and biotech companies are pursuing many of the same workers needed for satellite production, spacecraft development and related systems.

Skilled manufacturing is another bottleneck, with nearly 30% of work in the space economy tied to roles such as machinists and welders. The aerospace industry's attrition rate is nearly 16%, more than 10% higher than any other industry category, underscoring the need for faster expansion of workforce training programs.

Our earlier article on SpaceX’s upcoming Nasdaq-100 inclusion explained how the company’s rapid entry into the index could trigger fresh demand from index-tracking funds and prompt portfolio rebalancing by active managers. We noted that this mechanics-driven buying, around the effective date, can lift trading activity and highlight how quickly newly listed space-sector leaders can become influential in major U.S. equity benchmarks.

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