EMERGING ISSUES FACING THE GEOSCIENCE WORKFORCE AS WE ENTER THE NEXT DECADE

AGI’s Geoscience Workforce Program collects and analyzes data pertaining to the changes in the supply, demand, and training of the geoscience workforce. Every two years, AGI has released a large report, the Status of the Geoscience Workforce, detailing all aspects of the training, education, and demographics of the current and future workforce from K-12 education, two-year college, four-year universities, and current workforce and economic trends. In recent years, AGI’s data analyses about the geoscience workforce have revealed the changing forecasted shortage of geoscientist in the future geoscience workforce, but that forecasted shortage has decreased due to hiring changes within traditional geoscience industries, such as the extractive industries, the federal government, and the academic industry. In 2014, AGI forecasted a shortage of 135,000 geoscientists by 2024, but in 2016, that forecast shifted to a shortage of 90,000 geoscientists by 2026.

The 2018 edition of the Status of the Geoscience Workforce quantifies these changes in geoscience workforce, as well as predicts the potential change in the number of geoscientists in the workforce over the next decade. This presentation will show the changes in the dynamics of the geoscience workforce since the 2016 edition of the report, as well as discuss new issues facing the future workforce that cannot yet be quantified, such as the potential effects of changing political pressures and the implementation of machine learning into many geoscience industries.