While GIS professionals already know this, new research by the Department of Labor indicates that in the future those who know how to perform analysis using GIS will be in demand. Read more from the article in Nature after the jump.

This isn't the most groundbreaking news, or the newest news, but those people who have GIS and GIS analysis skills will be in demand in the future as the world evolves. The Association of American Geographers has a link to a PDF article in the highly regarded journal Nature, discussing a Department of Labor study that identified geotechnology as one of the three most important emerging and evolving fields. Specifically, those who have the ability to analyze spatial data and integrate satellite and orthophoto data with GIS data will be in demand. I think this article helps put in perspective the new web mapping applications which avoid any semblance of analysis. GIS and mapping are about more than just creating a static map with geocoded data on it, its about spatial analysis and discovering the relationships between place. As can be witnessed by these new applications, anyone can create a map, but to perform analysis, and interpret that analysis, requires far more advanced training.