The Survey on the Total Employment in Europe in the EO Services Sector conducted by the European Association of Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC) has been published in March 2021 and it complements information from the 2020 Earth Observation Industry Survey published in July.
As EARSC highlighted in its last Earth Observation Industry Survey, the EO industry is continuing to grow about 10% per year. However, the impact of the pandemic crisis on the industry in 2020 will be analyzed in the next 2021 Earth Observation Industry Survey.
This Survey is the first report providing an estimate of the total number of Earth Observation (EO) employees throughout Europe, including both the public and private sector. With the term “EO employee”, EARSC indicates “all persons whose work relies on EO data or services. Any person working for an organization or a unit within an organization which is using EO data, and hence whose job is dependent on the EO data will be included”.
The report collects data from 30 European countries or ESA member states with a differentiation between the public and the private sector.
As far as the public sector is concerned, the distinction in this study has been done considering from one side bodies at the National level and, on the other side, public bodies at the European level. In parallel, the two main differentiations considered within the private sector concern the EO services sector and other industrial sectors that include EO activities.
This analysis shows that the total amount of employees from the Earth Observation activities is 24002 people. Here, the employment in the public sector, both at national and European levels represents 11484 individuals. Unfortunately, the study does not include the workers from the military category. Concerning the private sector, bringing together the workforce of the EO services and other industrial sectors, the estimation gives us a total of 12518 individuals.
The above diagram shows clearly that the National Public sector bodies and the EO services sector together represent the absolute majority of the workforce in this sector, with 83% of the total EO employees. The remaining 17% includes other commercial bodies with 11% of the total workforce. The other 6% is including Clusters, Academia and European Public Sector Bodies.
The next EARSC publication regarding the Earth Observation sector will be the 2021 Earth Observation Industry Survey following the methodology of the previous reports (more information here).
