Employment of atmospheric scientists is projected to increase
about as fast as the average for all occupations through 2012. The
National Weather Service has completed an extensive modernization of
its weather forecasting equipment and finished all hiring of
meteorologists needed to staff the upgraded stations. The Service has
no plans to increase the number of weather stations or the number of
meteorologists in existing stations. Employment of meteorologists in
other Federal agencies is expected to remain stable.
On the other hand, job opportunities for atmospheric scientists in private
industry are expected to be better than for those in the Federal
Government over the 2002-12 period. 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 weather-sensitive industries.
Farmers, commodity investors, radio and television stations, and
utilities, 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
weather-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 outlined in the Clean Air Act of 1990, but related
employment increases are expected to be small. Opportunities in
broadcasting are rare and highly competitive, making for very few job
openings.
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