High Demand Jobs for Your Future, 2010 - 2050: How to Read the Signposts

© Patty Inglish, MS 1990 - 2011. All rights reserved.

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A reader of screen name kirodan asks this question regarding furture employment trends:

• "What is more in demand in the future, Business or Health Care?
• IF I'M TO CHOOSE THE BEST CAREER FOR THE FUTURE, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

It is interesting to read across the menu of Top Jobs advocated by a group of individuals and agencies; business analysts and forecasters, financial analysts, employment specialists, marketing pros, labor unions, government officials and departments, and leading business, financial, and economic publications in print and on the Internet. Each gathers information and arranges it to make sense in a certain trend and recommendations, and presents it in various ways - some pretty solid, others rather biased, and some incorrect or manipulative.

It is important to look closely at some articles that recommend jobs for now and in the future.

One fact to consider is that government projections or forecasts include several categories and the ones I see referenced most often are

• Numbers of new jobs estimated to be created within a decade of years and
• Percentage increase in jobs from start to finish of a 10-year period.

An instructor once taught my class : "You can't just read news articles, you have to read news articles, and by that I mean analyze their validity."

One question to approach when reading about hot jobs is how the opinion was formed and what facts contributed to it.

To whit, if an article presents a Top 5 Jobs for the Future, are all the right statistics there? --

• Is every one of the 5 percentages of increase over a projected decade (like 1900 - 1910) listed, along with the total numbers of new jobs expected in the same 10 years for each of the five jobs? Or
• At least one set of 5 percentages or one set of 5 numbers-of-jobs ?

If some of the data is missing or if some percentages and some numbers are used, then the 5 jobs titles can be put into any order and a reader might assume that the first listed is the fastest increasing job. This may be intentional, sloppy, a result of a lack of time, or something else.

The title of one article I read included the feature "5 Hot Jobs", but listed and discussed 7 job titles in 7 different industries and did not list a 1,2,3,4,and 5 hottest job by any rank.

After looking up all the percentages and numbers-of-increase with the US Department. of Labor, BLS, and various stats agencies, I noticed that the job title listed first in the article was one that will likely increase substantially in numbers, but these numbers can be overtaken by a more high-tech job title by the end of 10-year period examined.

The article spoke of :

• Percentage increase in one job title and
• Numbers of new jobs in another job title, but
• These two cannot be compared with each other --

We know that 50% may equal 5 jobs in one case, yet 5,000 in another case and still be 50% in both (Example : 50% of 10 = 5, but 50% of 10,000 = 5,000. Which would be the "hotter" job?).

At the same time, we may see a 2% increase in one job title that represents a greater NUMBER of jobs than a 10% increase in another (Example: 2% of 518, 000 = 51,800, while 10% of 4,200 = 420. Which job is increasing fastest?).

You can use either the Percentage or the Numbers, as long as you are as consistent as possible within a report. Occasionally, a percent or a number is just not available or has not been computed yet. In addition, States and Communities may have a different opinion about growth in different jobs in their local areas.

Some bias in Internet reporting has represented that Nurses comprise the top hot job in the country through 2018. However, this is only a 22.37% increase from 2008 to 2018. That's appriximately 581,500 new jobs, but the percentage was not stated in the article. The percentage is no match for the 72% increase in Biomedical Engineers projected from 2008 - 2018, which is already felt in certain major metropolitan areas, such as the Ohio Space Corridor.

Biomedical Engineers is the government-predicted top hot job by percentage increase at least until 2018 and my opinion - given privatized space flight and the need for these professionals on earth and in space - is that the job title will expand job vacancies through 2050. So will Nursing increase openings, but I think it will probably be overtaken by the first, more high-tech, broader-ranged health/medical job title.

At the same time, Physical Therapist (PT) is still the hottest job in the USA in the 2010s and was in the 200)s, in highest demand in all-sources Internet job postings. At least all three job titles are all in the realm of the Medical and Healthcare Industry!

Healthcare and Business will both increase in the future, because both included Services that people need now and will need in the future. Some of Healthcare also crosses over into Business itself.

I regularly hear from IT people that ask why Software Engineers or Network Systems and Data Communications Analysts are not in the Top 5 or 10 Hot Jobs in all states and cities -- The following table will be pleasant news.

Interestingly, an article I read concerning the top 5 Hot Jobs through 2018 listed these jobs titles in this order: Nurses, Biomedical Engineers, Networks Systems and Data Communications Analysts, Veterinarians, and Software Engineers (that's 6).

Even by numbers of increase, the Top 5 Jobs are:

1. Registered Nurses
2. Home Health Aides
3. Customer Service Representatives
4. Combined Food Preparation and Serving Workers
5. Personal and Home Care Aides

In the end, the article I read 1) compared some Percentages with Numbers and 2) left out either/or for a few job titles. It also chose 6 job titles that were not all in the actual top 5 for either rank (percent or number).

My opinion is that good career choices through 2018 and even to 2050 in Health and Aerospace would include

1. Biomedical Engineers - Read journal and online news media concerning the development of these jobs and the industries that support them (for example, Health/Medical, Business, Aerospace).
2. Other Health/Medical positions - You may even start as a nurse but keep going to Nurse Practitioner, Physician, Physical Therapy Supervisor or open your own PT Clinic. An aging and growing population needs more health/medical services.
3. IT Jobs - Software Engineers and Network positions in a wide range of fields, including Health and Aerospace
4. Business and Finance Analysts/Examiners
5. Retail, Food and other Sales/Services - Work up in management and ownership.