When you consider working in the space industry, a particular picture comes to mind. Whiteboards covered in equations, lab coats, and PhD plaques on the wall. The image of a machinist wearing safety goggles on a factory floor fitting a part that will eventually orbit the Earth doesn’t immediately spring to mind, but it probably should. There is such a person. That kind of person is extremely hard to come by right now.
The space economy has been expanding so quickly that the majority of industry observers are still taken aback by the figures. The Space Foundation reports that the sector’s overall value grew at a rate of about 9% per year, reaching an all-time high of $613 billion in Q2 2025. Over the past ten years, employment in the private sector in space has increased by 27% in the United States alone—nearly twice as quickly as the private workforce as a whole. The industry grew by 18% between 2019 and 2024. It’s not a gradual ascent. It’s a run.
In all of this, it’s simple to overlook who is being hired. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, workers under 35 make up nearly half of the new jobs entering the space economy. The proportion of young workers has been falling in practically every other significant industry, including the media and professional services. The space industry is significantly defying that trend. That might be partially due to the fact that the sector is still relatively new and does not yet have a well-established senior workforce. However, it also implies that this industry is attracting younger talent in a way that others aren’t.
A significant component of that attraction is the compensation. Depending on the position, median yearly salaries in the private space industry usually range from $100,000 to $135,000. Beyond base pay, equity packages at businesses like SpaceX have transformed compensation into something more akin to a lottery ticket than a salary, in the best sense of the word. Thousands of current and former employees became millionaires when SpaceX finished its initial public offering. Based on shares they had discreetly held for years, more than 100 entered the billionaire realm. Within an industry where people converse with one another, that is a story that spreads quickly.
Nevertheless, the industry’s own aspirations are placing a strain on the hiring pipeline. There are currently over 12,800 open positions at RTX Corp. worldwide. Lockheed Martin is in second place with more than 10,600, more than doubling from the same time last year. While overall U.S. job postings have decreased by about 5%, data from Revelio Labs shows that active job postings across space-economy companies have increased by more than 40% year over year. The 45 percentage point difference is not the result of rounding errors. It represents an industry that is actually having trouble filling positions.
The strong STEM requirements that are ingrained in a large portion of the work help to explain some of that. According to recent estimates, formal STEM credentials are required for more than half of private-sector space economy jobs, which is roughly twice the national average. Approximately 25% of American workers possess such training. As a result, there is usually fierce competition for eligible applicants before even one interview.
However, skilled manufacturing is the bottleneck that receives less attention. Building the vehicles, weapons systems, and satellites that power a large portion of the industry’s commercial side accounts for nearly 30% of labor in the space economy. Firefly Aerospace’s director of talent acquisition, Dave Baldwin, is straightforward about the issue. The problem, in his opinion, is that the aerospace industry isn’t the only industry vying for the few available machinists, welders, and technicians. The same individuals are sought after by semiconductor, biotech, and automotive companies.
Particularly, satellites have been the focus of recent expansion. Due in large part to advancements in satellite technology and the need for satellite-based data, the commercial products and services sector of the space industry now makes up well over half of the sector’s total economic value. Practically speaking, this means that factories producing satellite components require more workers with highly specialized fabrication skills, which are difficult to find and retain. The Aerospace Industries Association found that the industry’s attrition rate between 2021 and 2024 sat at nearly 16%, more than 10 points above any other industry category it tracked.
Speaking with professionals in this field gives me the impression that the industry is aware of the solution but is still working out how to implement it. Partnerships with community colleges, apprenticeship programs, early workforce pipelines — the ideas aren’t new. Baldwin describes how Firefly has been scaling up its connections with local schools and supporting veterans transitioning through the DoD SkillBridge Program. Since 2021, Blue Origin’s educational foundation has contributed tens of millions to STEM outreach. It’s a beginning. However, according to a 2025 AIA report, only 20% of space-related businesses that were having trouble finding talent had expanded or developed training initiatives. There is a lot of space for improvement in that figure.
It’s evident that the space economy is more than just an orbital mechanics and astronaut narrative. It’s turning into a narrative about trade schools, labor markets, and the question of whether an industry expanding at this rate can create a workforce quickly enough to keep up. People who know how to build things with their hands are in high demand, and the work and pay are real. All the industry has to do is locate them.
