Career Path Forecast
 According
to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of atmospheric
scientists is projected to grow 15 percent over the 2008-18 decade,
faster than the average for all occupations. Most new jobs are expected
to arise in private industry. As research leads to continuing
improvements in weather forecasting, demand should grow for private
weather consulting firms to provide more detailed information than has
formerly been available, especially to climate-sensitive industries.
 Farmers,
commodity investors, insurance companies, utilities, and transportation
and construction firms can greatly benefit from additional weather
information more closely targeted to their needs than the general
information provided by the National Weather Service. Additionally,
research on seasonal and other long-range forecasting is yielding
positive results, which should spur demand for more atmospheric
scientists to interpret these forecasts and advise climate-sensitive
industries. However, because many customers for private weather services
are in industries sensitive to fluctuations in the economy, the sales
and growth of private weather services depend on the health of the
economy.
 There
will continue to be demand for atmospheric scientists to analyze and
monitor the dispersion of pollutants into the air to ensure compliance
with Federal environmental regulations, but related employment increases
are expected to be small. Efforts toward making and improving global
weather observations also could have a positive impact on employment.
Atmospheric scientists will face keen competition, as the number of
graduates from college and university atmospheric sciences programs is
expected to exceed the number of openings in the field. Although overall
opportunities will be limited, the best prospects will be in private
industry. Few opportunities are expected in government as atmospheric
scientists will only need to be hired to replace workers who retire or
leave the field. Openings for academic researchers will be limited due
to the small number of positions. Workers with graduate degrees should
enjoy better prospects than those with only a bachelor’s degree.
Note:
Some resources in this section are provided by the the US Department
of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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