PE and RS PUBLIC November 2011 : Page-1085which sector of the industry do they primarily work. Most work in General Mapping (24%), with approximately 16% working in the National Security/Defense, Environmental and Civilian Government. Seventeen percent listed “other “as their primary sector. As Figure 5 (Question 35) indicates, the majority of respondents have salaries greater than $50,000 per year with 27% in the $50,000-75,000 range, 35% in the $75,000– $150,000 range and 6% over $150,000. Most of the respondents, 70% of the 440 who responded to Question 5, have eight years or more experience in the geospatial industry, with 36% having 20 or more years of experi-ence. These values indicate the respondents are in the mid-level and upper management positions in the various employment sectors, which should be the group most informed and able to provide survey responses. In which of the following Sectors and Sub-Sectors do you PRIMARILY work? (select one) 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% l t. ia re ta es ov tu ed en rc ul M l G i c m / i ou v r n i t s g o e C A en vir / R m En n in ta tio r a r te plo En Ex ry st re o F s e ) e n s g se ify cs at nc m in itie tio hi st ra m t il ec en ta pp p f r o E u U p a e s c s ra al po M le In e /D og ns al Re Te ity as ra er em le ur T n c p D e ( e s/ G er l S es th ba O sin lo u B l/G na tio a N Figure 4. Primary sectors of respondent employment Workforce Issues: Need, Level of Education and Specializations This section of the survey attempts to de-termine the level of demand for geospatial workers and the nature of the preparation necessary to fill future workforce demand. Question 49 asked whether their organiza-tion plans to replace employees in the next five years. Forty-five percent of the respon-dents indicate that their organization would be hiring in this time period. Twenty-five percent indicated no replacement hiring and 30% did not know. The majority of the respondents (52%) indi-cate that the undergraduate degree is the pre-ferred level of education for their workforce (Q 9 N=310). The master’s degree was the second most preferred level of education at 21%. Technical training and certificates were listed as the preferred level by 12% and 6% of the respondents, respectively. Interestingly, only 2% of the respondents indicated that a Ph.D. is the preferred level of education. This certainly indicates support for higher education in geospatial workforce develop-ment, but not at the Ph.D. level. This may be an indicator of research funds slowing in a stagnant economy. Further study of this situa-tion, together with a possible association with reduced research funding, is warranted. Question 10 asked the respondents to rank the four most critical knowledge and skills needed by future employees. Figure 6 shows the response count of those areas listed as the four most critical. Applications GIS had the highest response count with continued on page 1086 Photogrammetric engineering & remote SenSing 30.0% 25.0% 20.0% 15.0% 10.0% 5.0% 0.0% What Is Your Annual Base Salary? Figure 5. Base Salary for Respondents Web programming Verbal and written communication skills Spatial statistics/analysis Spatial database understanding Sensor operations SAR expertise Photogrammetry Multispectral expertise Multi-sensor fusion Multi-lingual skills Geodetic Science Mathematics Lidar expertise Improve GIS algorithms Algorithm development Hyperspectral expertise Develop new algorithms Computer programming Cartography/visualization Applications GIS tools Applications science 0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 Figure 6. Most critical knowledge/skills needed by future employees November 2011 1085 Publication List Using a screen reader? Click Here |
