What can you do with a geology and earth science degree?
Where geology and earth science graduates actually work, and how exposed those jobs are to AI. Built from ACS 2020-2024 5-year PUMS: 9,126 people whose bachelor's degree is in this field, aged 22-64.
Geology and earth science is a degree whose graduates scatter widely. About 15 in 100 people with a geology or earth science bachelor's degree work as geoscientists or hydrologists, the Census group that holds field geologists and hydrologists, and another 2 in 100 work as environmental scientists. No other occupation we score reaches 4 in 100.
Elementary and middle school teachers are next at about 3 in 100, then project management specialists, secondary school teachers, management analysts and software developers at roughly 2 in 100 each.
A large share works in roles we do not score. About 6 in 100 are managers in other roles, about 5 in 100 are postsecondary teachers and about 3 in 100 are in "physical scientists, all other", a Census catch-all that we cannot map to one page. This page covers about 56% of graduates, which is below our 60% bar for an overall verdict.
The figures come from Census data on more than 9,000 people with the degree, matched to the occupation pages on this site. For neighbouring degrees with similar field and consulting work, see environmental science and civil engineering.
How exposed are geology and earth science jobs to AI?
We give this degree no overall verdict. The largest group, geoscientists and hydrologists (about 15 in 100 graduates), maps to our field geologist and hydrologist pages, which rate AI-resistant despite the paperwork because of qualified-person reporting rules and state licensing. Environmental scientists, a separate Census occupation holding about 2 in 100 graduates, rate At risk.
Among graduates in jobs we score, about 49% are in AI-resistant jobs, 35% in At risk jobs and 16% in Safe jobs, so no label reaches the 70% our rule needs. Coverage is 56%, under our 60% bar. The degree's exposure figure is 72 out of 100, so the jobs are task-exposed.
The Census paper's appendix table shows a weaker 2024 employment rate for recent geology graduates than for the average major, but it places geology in a middle exposure group and does not tie that change to AI. Confidence is insufficient.
These figures cover the 56% of geology and earth science graduates who work in occupations we score. The other 44% work in roles we do not cover (largest: Other Managers; Postsecondary Teachers; Physical Scientists, all Other). Signal 01 averages each job's own structural exposure, weighted by how many graduates work there; it describes tasks, not whether jobs will disappear.
Where geology and earth science graduates actually work
These 10 occupations account for 41% of geology and earth science graduates. The rest are spread across many smaller occupations, each under 1%. Graduates often work outside the field.
Careers next door to geology and earth science, least exposed first
Curated related careers of the main occupations above, ranked by structural exposure (lowest first), so you can see which neighboring routes are less and more exposed.
What the research says about AI and geology and earth science graduates
The Census Bureau working paper (September 2026) lists geology and earth science in its appendix table, with about 8,300 graduates from 2018 to 2022, in the sixth of ten exposure groups and with an exposure score slightly below average (-0. 09 standard deviations).
That puts it inside the pooled group of less exposed majors (the bottom six tenths) that the paper compares the most exposed tenth against, and the paper says that tenth is heavily dominated by computer science and other software-related degrees.
The table's 2024 estimates for geology, measured against 2022 and against the average major, are an employment rate about 4 percentage points lower (-0.040) and earnings about 1% higher (0.010). The paper says majors in its middle exposure groups are split between employment gains and losses, and it does not discuss geology on its own, so this row does not show that AI is the cause.
The Dallas Fed paper names computer science, computer engineering and languages as the most exposed majors and does not mention geology. The NBER paper reports no results by major, and Employ America names chemistry, alongside computer science and computer engineering, among the majors with higher unemployment than before the pandemic, not geology. The studies disagree about how much of any graduate weakness is due to AI.
Read the full evidence review: what the studies say about AI and graduate jobs →
Degrees whose graduates work in similar jobs
How this page was built
Graduate shares come from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS 2020-2024 5-year PUMS), field of degree "Geology And Earth Science" (code 5004), weighted to the population. Each occupation we cover is scored with the numbers already published on its own page on this site, then averaged by graduate share. Occupations without a page are shown but never scored. Graduates aged 22-64 are included, so the mix reflects the whole working-age group, not only recent graduates. The survey records the most recent occupation of people who were not working when surveyed (unemployed or out of the labor force), and they are counted in it: across the degrees on this site that is about 9 in 100 graduates, between 6 and 13 in 100 depending on the degree, so "work as" on this page means "work or last worked as". Sources: www2.census.gov, www2.census.gov, www.dallasfed.org, www.nber.org, employamerica.org, www.bls.gov, www.bls.gov. This page is general information, not career or educational advice.