Who employs meteorologists and atmospheric scientists?
Traditionally, three major meteorological employers exist: government agencies, private industrial and consulting firms, and colleges and universities. Employers within government include the National Weather Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Air Weather Service of the U.S. Air Force, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Department of Defense, as well as many state environmental agencies. Penn State's program provides all necessary qualifications to meet civil service requirements for meteorological employment. Many graduates secure employment in jobs related in some way to weather analysis and forecasting. Gathering data and making forecasts is an extremely complex operation involving thousands of skilled meteorological specialists, in such areas as verifying weather forecasts, developing statistical forecast methods, analyzing observations, programming computers, and predicting weather conditions for specialized applications such as aviation. Demand also exists in the government for graduates knowledgeable about atmospheric chemistry, and pollution dispersion processes.
Employment opportunities for meteorology graduates vary considerably from year to year, depending in part on government fiscal policies and in part on economic conditions. In some years, competition for employment is quite keen, and some graduates find it necessary to accept temporary positions in other fields. Because of the strong preparation in basic mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computer science that all Penn State meteorology students acquire, graduates find themselves in good positions to adapt to the wide range of opportunities that they may encounter. Historically, even during periods when there have been no shortages of jobs for graduates, many meteorology graduates have taken jobs in other fields in response to unusual challenges they encountered and found attractive.
The nature of our society's technology and the multitude of environmental problems that will accompany the development of new energy sources are expected to maintain the demand for atmospheric physicists and chemists for many years to come. Salary ranges in meteorology vary depending on private or government employment. Starting salaries usually fall between $20,600 and $25,500 with a B.S. degree, with a wider range possible in private industry.
The practive of meteorology has changed so rapidly over the last 25 years that few career guides give an accurate picture of the true challenges and opportunties facing students who are entering the field. An excellent guide is provided by the American Meteorological Society at http://www.ametsoc.org/AMS/atmoscareers.
The listing below gives an idea of typical starting salaries for graduates in meteorology. The private industry range is based in part on a 1998 survey by the American Meteorological Society, and the government range is based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2002-2003 Occupational Outlook Handbook, http://stats.bls.gov/oco/) entry-level salaries for meteorologists.
| Private Industry | B.S. | $18,000 - $30,000 |
| M.S. | $30,000 - $40,000 | |
|
|
Ph.D. | $40,000 - $60,000 |
| Government | B.S. | $27,995 - $34,544 |
| M.S. | $42,090 - $54,393 | |
|
|
Ph.D. | $70,280 - |
| Academic | B.S. | -- |
| M.S. | -- | |
| Ph.D. | $45,000 - $80,000 |
Where
do Penn State Meteorology B.S. graduates find employment?
View the pie chart below to see where our graduates are working.
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