Space Hiring Surges 40% as Skills Gap Bites

The space economy added jobs at a pace that far outpaces the broader U.S. labor market. Active postings from companies in the sector rose more than 40% year-over-year, according to Revelio Labs data. Over the same period, total U.S. job postings fell roughly 5%. The gap is wide, and it is persistent.

The numbers come from Dean Boerner, a lead data scientist at Revelio Labs. He analyzed tens of thousands of postings across hundreds of space-sector companies. "U.S. postings overall are down about 5%, making the rise in opportunities within aerospace particularly striking," Boerner said.

The macro backdrop is clear. The global space economy grew at an annual rate of 9%, the World Economic Forum estimates. In the U.S., gross output rose nearly $51.5 billion from 2012 to 2023, and the sector's total value hit $613 billion in the second quarter of 2025, a record, per the Space Foundation.

Employment in private-sector space jobs reached 373,000 workers, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That figure grew 27% in the decade through 2024, double the 14% pace for all private-sector jobs. From 2019 to 2024 alone, space-sector headcount expanded 18%.

Young workers drove a disproportionate share of that growth. Nearly half of new space-economy hires are under 35, the Census Bureau reports. That group's share of the space workforce rose three percentage points from 2014 to 2024, bucking the broader trend of declining youth employment in other sectors.

The hiring surge runs into a hard constraint: the supply of skilled labor. Over half of private-sector space jobs require STEM skills, about double the national average. Only about a quarter of U.S. workers have formal STEM training, and far fewer have the specialized aerospace background manufacturers need.

RTX Corp leads all employers with 12,871 open positions globally, Revelio Labs data shows. For context, the RTX stock page shows an Alpha Score of 54, reflecting a mixed outlook tied partly to these labor pressures. Lockheed Martin ranks second with 10,614 openings, up more than 5,000 from a year earlier. The LMT stock page shows a score of 43. Both face a persistent hiring challenge.

The most in-demand roles are safety engineer, information security analyst, integration engineer, reliability engineer, and hardware engineer. Each requires at least a bachelor's degree in a related field.

Attrition in aerospace has been severe. A 2025 Aerospace Industries Association report, done with McKinsey & Co., found the industry's attrition rate hovered near 16% from 2021 through 2024, more than 10 percentage points higher than any other industry category. Seventy-six percent of AIA member organizations reported sustained challenges in hiring engineers. More than half reported trouble recruiting skilled manufacturing talent.

Nearly 30% of space-economy work involves skilled manufacturing – the hands-on labor needed for space vehicles, weapons, and satellites. Satellites, in particular, have driven commercial growth. The commercial space products and services segment accounted for more than half of the economy's total value in 2024, the Space Foundation said, as satellite data found new uses in fleet routing and supply chain optimization.

The skills shortage is not unique to aerospace. "There are multiple industries – automotive, semiconductor, biotech – that are competing for the same types of skilled workers," said Dave Baldwin, director of talent acquisition at Firefly Aerospace.

Firefly, which went public last August, has tried to address the gap through training partnerships. Baldwin pointed to its work with local high schools, community colleges, and universities, as well as a DoD SkillBridge program for veterans. "It's critical for commercial space companies to partner … to develop skill-based programs," he said.

Not all companies have invested in training. The AIA report found that among firms struggling with hiring and retention, only 20% had expanded training programs. More common moves were referral bonuses, geographic recruitment expansion, and compensation changes.

SpaceX, the sector's most prominent employer, acknowledged the issue in its IPO filing. "The current tight labor market has adversely impacted our ability to recruit qualified personnel, including engineers," the company said, citing its AI segment as a particular challenge.

The gap between job creation and job filling is unlikely to close quickly. Training pipelines take years. In the meantime, the companies that can build those pipelines earlier will hold a structural advantage. For now, the data show the sector hiring faster than it can staff.