The 30 Fastest-Growing Jobs And Careers For The Next 10 Years

Contributed by Jack Kelly

If you are starting out your career or have been in the workforce for a while, it's important to look into the future. Hockey star Wayne Gretzky famously said, “I skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.” It's the same way with your career. You  need to look forward. Anticipate the emerging trends. Figure out how you can leverage your skills to pivot toward a fast-growing career instead of being stuck with a job that’s going nowhere.

I write about the monthly jobs report compiled by the United States Department of Labor. Every month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows how many new jobs were created or lost. The data captures a moment in time. This division, as you can imagine, has access to a wealth of information and statistics about jobs and careers. 

While most economists, Wall Street professionals and nerdy guys like me pay attention to the monthly jobs reports, the BLS has some compelling reading for proactive people who strongly desire to advance their careers. It has put together lists of the fastest-growing jobs and careers. Additionally, the BLS shares how much these roles pay.

Before we go into the jobs, let’s look at the sectors that offer rapid growth. To start with, the BLS anticipates that overall employment in the U.S. will grow from “153.5 million to 165.4 million over the 2020–30 decade, an increase of 11.9 million jobs.” 

Employment in the restaurant, bar, travel, hotel and what’s referred to as the “leisure and hospitality sector,” as a catch-all, is projected to increase at the fastest rate. This will occur in response to the the country’s reopening and recovery. During the pandemic, workers in the leisure and hospitality space were one of first to lose their jobs or get furloughed. Now, due to nearly insatiable demand, the jobs have come roaring back. The bounceback has been so enormous that restaurants and businesses complain they can’t find enough workers. Large corporations, such as Walmart, Amazon and Target, have had to respond by offering sign-on bonuses, increases in wages and free tuition to entice people to join their companies.

As you can imagine, in the current and eventually post-pandemic environment, healthcare will take precedence. Understandably, concerns about our health and safety will propel the healthcare and social assistance sector’s continued growth. This space is “projected to add the most jobs of all industry sectors, about 3.3 million jobs over 2020–30.” 

A rising demand for the care of an aging Baby-Boomer population, longer life expectancies and continued growth in the number of patients with chronic conditions will call for a steady need for healthcare providers.

Technological advancements are expected to keep growing at a fast pace. We see an acceleration in artificial intelligence, robotics, self-driving vehicles, cryptocurrencies, gaming, virtual reality, online collaborative video platforms and the metaverse. There will be needs across the gamut, ranging from large tech giants to scrappy startups. As business continues moving online, demand will outstrip the supply of suitable job candidates. 

According to the BLS, “Computer and mathematical occupations are expected to see fast employment growth as strong demand is expected for IT security and software development, in part due to increased prevalence of telework spurred by the Covid-19 pandemic.” The downside is that technological changes facilitating increased automation are expected to result in declining employment for office and administrative support occupations.

Tangentially, there will be a large need for people to interpret the vast amount of data to help business leaders make smart, informed decisions. Demand for new products, such as the Internet of Things, and for analyzing and interpreting large datasets are also expected to contribute to fast employment growth for statisticians, information security analysts and data scientists.

We are likely to see a retirement boom. This will open up opportunities for younger workers. Demographics show that by 2030, Baby Boomers will be at least 65 years old. As they age, many will start retiring or leave the workforce. The BLS states, “The increasing share of people ages 65 and older contributes to a projected labor force growth rate that is slower than much of recent history, as well as a continued decline in the labor force participation rate, because older people have lower participation rates compared with younger age groups.”

Other trends, such as moving toward environmentally friendly initiatives, the massive adoption of pets during the pandemic, a mental health crisis, working from home and the desire to improve our health and lives, will create all sorts of new opportunities.  

Here are the jobs that the U.S. Labor Department and BLS project will be the fastest growing jobs going into 2030, along with the median annual pay:

• Wind turbine service technicians: $56,230
• Nurse practitioners: $111,680
• Solar photovoltaic installers: $46,470
• Statisticians: $92,270
• Physical therapist assistants: $59,770
• Information security analysts: $103,590
• Home health and personal care aides: $27,080
• Medical and health services managers: $104,280
• Data scientists and mathematical science occupations, all other: $98,230
• Physician assistants: $115,390
• Epidemiologists: $74,560
• Logisticians: $76,270
• Speech-language pathologists: $80,480
• Animal trainers: $31,520
• Computer numerically controlled tool programmers: $57,740
• Genetic counselors: $85,700
• Crematory operators and personal care and service workers, all other: $28,420
• Operations research analysts: $86,200
• Actuaries: $111,030
• Health specialties teachers, postsecondary: $99,090
• Forest fire inspectors and prevention specialists: $42,150
• Interpreters and translators: $52,330
• Athletic trainers: $49,860
• Respiratory therapists: $62,810
• Substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors: $47,660
• Food preparation and serving related workers, all other: $27,080
• Nursing instructors and teachers, postsecondary: $75,470
• Woodworkers, all other: $33,630
• Phlebotomists: $36,320
• Software developers and software quality assurance analysts and testers: $110,140

How to choose a career path in three easy steps

 

Choosing a career path doesn’t have to feel like staring into a crystal ball. Try our step-by-step guide.

If you ask someone to sketch out an ideal career path, they’ll probably draw a straight line, rising upward like a backslash. You decide what you want to be when you grow up, go to vocational school or college or snag an entry-level job, and then hop up the professional ladder rung by rung, promotion by promotion, like some kind of business-savvy Super Mario.

But that’s not what a typical career path looks like anymore; work has changed. Nowadays, our career paths take us on scenic strolls through meadows, daring passes over ravines, winding climbs to majestic mountain peaks. And, yes, sometimes they take us down a rocky road, and we trip, only to regain our footing with a little more experience to carry down the trail. (By the way, here’s how to explain those job slipups in a job interview.)

The point is not that you can’t chart the course of your own career path. It’s that we have to be brave, embrace the unknown and embark with as many tools to help on the journey as possible.

With that in mind, let’s talk about how to choose your career path.

What is a career path?

A career path is the broad course you want your professional life to take. It could begin with a destination — like a dream job or a personal goal related to work, such as home ownership or owning your own business — or start with something clear, like an interest in a certain field, and then wind into the mist ahead of you, leading somewhere you’ve yet to discover. Each professional move you make — every class you take, job you work, raise you earn — is a milestone in the story of your career path. And usually, the best stories surprise you.

Some people have a singular vision for their professional lives. They know exactly where they want to live and work and set about getting there like a dad with an old-fashioned atlas planning the route to the family vacation. Say you want to work in administration at a school. If you’re one of these lucky, clear-eyed people, you might chart your career path something like this:

Get a bachelor’s degree in education.

Get a job as a teacher at a public school.

Take on more responsibilities as a department chair.

Get promoted to an assistant principal role and improve school performance.

Finally, snag that principal job.

Congrats to this talented educator! But for most of us, things aren’t so clear-cut. Planning a career path can feel like staring into a crystal ball, wondering where life will lead. So let’s talk about how we can take the lead in our own lives.

Choosing a career path

You don’t have to map out your entire life from birth to death to get started on a career path. Let’s take it a step at a time.

1. Start small

If we were to ask your best friend what makes you happiest, what would they say? OK, so watching baseball might not seem like the most helpful answer. But what can you learn about yourself from it, other than the obvious fact that you like sports? Do you enjoy the social aspect of the game? Maybe you like organizing the watch parties, getting all the snacks together. Maybe you’re all about the math — where we see athletes running around a diamond, you see equations, formulas, possibilities.

The point is, even if you don’t have a dream job in mind just yet, you do have interests, skills, inclinations. Ask yourself, ideally, would you rather work on a team, or hole up on your own? Would you like to work with numbers, or food, or creative people, or your hands?

You can’t know what your dream job would be until you know yourself. Start there. Make a list of all your past jobs, education and experience. Then list all the skills you learned from them. Which skills felt the best to use? These days, skills are the most important factor in getting hired.

All you need to do is focus on what makes you, well, you. Start this journey with a small step.

2. Look down the road

By now, you’ve identified your core abilities, mapped out your values and explored your general interest in this or that field. Now it’s time to do some concrete research.

What kinds of jobs are available in the field you like? Read job descriptions carefully to see which roles sound right for you. If a certain job catches your eye, it’s time to reverse-engineer the process of getting there. These questions will help you chart your course:

How many years of experience does someone need to do this job?

What kind of education is required to do this job?

What does this job typically pay, and does that align with my life goals?

What jobs did people in this position work previously?

With the answers to these questions in mind, try to answer that dreaded interview question: Where do you see yourself in five years? Make a rough sketch of how long you’ll need to study, or work in other roles, before arriving at your destination.

3. Think big-picture

Remember everything we said about how a good hike doesn’t just beeline to a destination, but takes detours? How that’s what makes it a good hike? Here’s where that really comes into play.

Odds are, you are not going to decide what kind of job you want today and walk right into it tomorrow. That’s OK. You’re playing the long game. If your dream job means you need to go to school, and going to school means you need to get a part-time job, look for a part-time job where you could flex some skills you’d use in your ultimate goal — even if the job seems unrelated. If you want to be a realtor, you can gain plenty of experience in communication, persuasion and economics by working as a sales associate or customer service representative.

Don’t get discouraged if the road is long. Even if it feels like you’re walking in the wrong direction, you’re ultimately taking steps toward your goals.

How to say thank you for the interview (with examples)

 

How to write the perfect interview follow-up email that will keep you front of mind for the hiring manager.

So you’ve just come out of an interview, you’re pretty sure you nailed it, and now you’re planning what to wear for your first day at your new job. But before you get carried away, there’s something you need to do to keep yourself at the front of the hiring manager’s mind: the thank you email.

We show you how to write the ultimate ‘thank you for the interview’ email, explaining why it’s important and how it can help you secure the job.

Why write a thank you email after an interview?

When you write a follow-up email after your interview, you give yourself another opportunity to influence the hiring manager’s decision. No matter how well the interview went, people are busy and can forget key things. A thank-you email puts you back in their minds and can swing things in your favor.

A thank-you email also offers a personal touch. It shows that you care, and could set you apart from other candidates who haven’t bothered.

Be sure to send your thank-you email no more than 24 hours after your interview. It’s a little thing that can make a big difference.

What to include in a thank-you-for-the-interview email

What you say, and how you say it, can make all the difference in your interview follow-up email. Here are a few key sections worth including:

• Subject line

• Personalized introduction

• Appreciation

• Experience recap

• The next step

An engaging subject line

The subject line is the thing people will see first in their email inbox. You should use this to convey the meaning of your message, so something simple like, “Thank you for your time today,” or, “It was lovely to meet earlier,’ can do the job in a quick, succinct way.

There are a few ways you can get people to click on your subject line.

• Make it personal
. Using someone’s name in a subject line makes them pay attention.

• Use verbs
. Saying something like, “Read more about why I’m right for this role” gives the reader an action to take.

• Keep it short. 
A subject line should be a quick, catchy call to action. Don’t overcomplicate it.

A personalized introduction

Don’t go straight into the meat of your email. Start with a quick hello, keeping it as friendly or formal as the interview was. If they used their first name, you should use it too. If they wore a suit and insisted you call them Sir or Miss, that’s the route to follow.

The same goes for the salutation you choose. ‘Hello’ might work for most people, but others will prefer a ‘Dear’.

A little appreciation

Now for a tiny bit of sucking up. Only a touch, we promise. Start your emailing by expressing how grateful you are for the interviewer’s time. Be sure to include the job title so they can put two and two together. Something like, “Thanks for your time earlier. It was great to discuss the position of <job title> with you face to face and get the chance to explain why I think I’m right for the job,” would be perfect.

Remind them of your experience

Recap what makes you so good for the job. This could just be a few lines that go over what you discussed in the interview, or even link to some examples of work that would back your experience up.

Try something like: “As mentioned, I believe my experience in running multiple financial projects would make me a great fit for the role. Having led teams of accountants in the past and overseen highly successful auditing procedures, I am confident I have what it takes to succeed in this position and am looking forward to helping your business continue to grow.”

A nudge to take the next step

Time to wrap things up. Let the hiring manager know that you’re open to further communication and that you’re ready to start work. If you have a notice period to work though at your current job, it could be worth mentioning that too as the quicker they hire you, the quicker you’ll be ready to rock.

Go for something like, “Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions. I’m excited about what we can do together and look forward to hearing back from you.”

Don’t forget to include your contact information such as your email address and phone number.