Geospatial - GIS

The geospatial sector: Results of the employment survey

Geospatial Training Spanish has already disseminated the results of the survey they have applied a few weeks ago, in which an analysis of the sector is made with more than interesting results.

In principle, we congratulate the efforts of Directions Magazine that have been added to the Hispanic sector for a while, which broadens the range of services they provide and adds to the sustainability of the geospatial sector.

Analyzing the results, we can clearly perceive issues that are quite accepted but that only the application of such a formal instrument can ratify with evidence based on primary information. Although we believe that the sample loses representativeness to some degree by not having achieved a high degree of diffusion.

About Wages

While in the Hispanic environment they are between 25,000 and 30,000 Euros, in the United States it is in the 55,000 Euros within the respondents who responded from that country. It is clear that there is a slight mess that tends to leak when asking this question without sufficient explanation, because in Latin American countries the term annual income is rarely used, generally people multiply their monthly income by 12 or 13 months, which is not it's that true when compared to the United States. The difference lies in the medium and long-term social benefits, in the United States generally they do not exist as such and are included in the annual income, while for us they are rights that accumulate and that by the way with the weakness in the social issue or ambiguity of the law almost that we give them as if they did not exist. If we included them, we would report a higher annual income. Social benefits also differ greatly between countries such as Spain, Chile and Mexico, and it is not so easy to define annual income without making these considerations because while in some countries the tax is withheld in a tax way, in others it is a declarative action and that is lends a lot to evasion.

The survey applied to the Anglo-Saxon sector indicates that the average walks in 55,000 Dollars (Eye, this is less than 43,000 Euros) and there is a significant distribution between the 30,000 Euros and the 62,000 Euros.

geospatial wages survey

This difference is usually more than obvious due to the global imbalance that the market represents. A fast food employee in the United States receives an income similar to or higher than that of a Forestry Engineer in Latin America. Much more exaggerated is the case of a construction mason where the work is paid with a higher amount in developed countries.

As a consequence of this, I suppose Geospatial Training will be able to apply prices on its courses at a differentiated value for the Hispanic environment. What we see with good eyes and believe can be applied in the sale of services, although unfortunately it is not possible for this to apply to other areas such as software and equipment. 

About the Software and Programming Languages

I concur with the view of many that piracy is an inevitable result of social inequality between developed and the rest of the world; but I also believe that a high percentage of piracy obeys a professional habit by not investing in low-cost software (which is achievable) and little effort to investigate or learn other ways to solve problems (such as free software) ).

It can be clearly seen that in the Hispanic market, free software has an acceptable level of acceptance and appropriation. See that in the Anglo-Saxon environment the distribution of the applied software is:

  • Esri 66%
  • Open Source 10%
  • AutoDesk 9%
  • Bentley + Mapinfo + Intergraph 9%

In the Hispanic medium, see how the Open Source has won a significant 25% to Esri mainly, because the other systems included are better positioned with respect to Esri

  • Esri 38%
  • Open Source 25%
  • AutoDesk 14%
  • Bentley + Mapinfo + Intergraph 15%

Sure this distribution is very different in the case of Software for Engineering where Open Source has very little to offer yet.

In a similar way you can see how in the Hispanic medium Java is has more potential as a programming language against .NET. You can even see how Javascript takes a better position compared to Pyton, which never ceases to amaze me.

geospatial wages survey


It is worth reading the results of the survey as there are other valuable conclusions that each one can apply.

View survey results in English Here

View poll results in English Here

View the analysis done by Geospatial Training Here

Golgi Alvarez

Writer, researcher, specialist in Land Management Models. He has participated in the conceptualization and implementation of models such as: National Property Administration System SINAP in Honduras, Management Model of Joint Municipalities in Honduras, Integrated Cadastre-Registry Management Model in Nicaragua, Territory Administration System SAT in Colombia . Editor of the Geofumadas knowledge blog since 2007 and creator of the AulaGEO Academy that includes more than 100 courses on GIS - CAD - BIM - Digital Twins topics.

Related Articles

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked with *

Back to top button