Where the Best Jobs Will Be

Where the Best Jobs Will Be

The more education, the better your prospects – but it's a jungle out there

More job turmoil. Less job security. A need for better-prepared workers. That's the vision most career experts have for the next decade. The American economy economy will continue to be a powerful job-creating machine ; the U.S. Department of Labor predicts that some 30 million jobs will be added to the economy by 2030, a big raise in total employment. But the new jobs won't be evenly scattered across the landscape, meaning there's more job restructuring on the horizon. In short, for better and for worse, the immediate future will look a lot like the recent past.

With automation and the movement of factory work oversees, jobs will stagnate or fall off in many areas that require little education. That means, for example, more tough times for apparel workers and machine feeders. Those without at least a high school diploma will find very  few doors open. The fastest-growing areas require higher levels of skill and education. Three out of four of the fastest-growing job groups are executive, administrative and managerial, professional specialties, and technicians, according to the Labor Department.

Technical workers – those who diagnose, who design and operate computer machinery used to make cars and planes, and those who develop and operate the sophisticated computer and telecommunication networkers that are transforming business – are in the catbird seat. Technician jobs are expected to grow, and there will be 1 million new jobs for system analysts alone. Nuclear medicine and EEG technologists' jobs are expected to rise by more than half. But the fabulous growth rates in the latter two specialized fields can be somewhat deceiving, because these fields are small, the growth translates into only several thousand new jobs a year, on average.

Looking foe the best job... Photo by Elena.

As always, changing demographics will help create future jobs. By 2030, the number of people aged 85 and older will grow about four times as fast as the total population, increasing the demand for health services. The graying of America, combined with medical improvements that will expand life spans, will keep the health service industry sizzling. Jobs will soar. Jobs in home health care,, nursing homes, offices and clinics of physicians and other health practitioners are expected to rise. Residential care institutions providing round-the-clock help for the elderly are expected to be the fastest-growing industry in the whole economy. Other future hot-spots: child day-care and other social services, including elderly day care and family social services. One exception is hospitals, which will grow more slowly, due to cost-cutting competition in the industry.

Other service businesses will also continue to churn out jobs. Transportation, communications, utilities, retailing, government, finance, insurance, and real estate companies will account for almost two-thirds of all new jobs. Employment is expected to rise 40 percent in the services sector. Aside from nursing care, other hot service jobs will be in data processing, management consulting, and social, legal, and engineering and management services. The strong demand for financial services will continue, giving a boost to finance, insurance, and real estate jobs. The fastest-growing areas will be in investment and mortgage banking and insurance. The future is less rosy for jobs in commercial banks ans savings and loans.

A big chunk of the jobs created in the business services sector will come from temporary help agencies. Some 2 million workers already hold temp jobs, and their ranks are expect to grow 60 percent, to more than 3 million. Of the temp workers, some 25 percent are highly  skilled professionals. Wages generally are negotiable but average 25 to 30 percent less than salaries for similar permanent positions. Computer analysts, for example, earn about $30 dollars an hour, clerical workers make about $15 an hour.

Temping may appeal to workers who want to mold jobs to their lifestyle but it also comes with headaches, such as finding affordable health insurance. Some temps can get coverage through a group plan offered by the National Association of Temporary Services. A bit of good news: about 30 percent of temporary jobs lead to full-time positions. 

Despite the spotlight on high-tech careers, many of tomorrow's jobs will look much like today's. America will still need more gardeners, for example, than computer programmers in the years to come. The nation also will need twice as many teachers and three times as many nurses, according to the Labor Department. And increased income will mean increased spending, spurring the need for five times as many retail clerks.

As the shift away from railroads toward road deliveries continues, truck drivers will be in demand. Truck transportation will account for 50 percent of all knew jobs in this category. And deregulation of utilities should create some 130,000 new jobs., especially in water supply and sanitary services. Construction workers will be needed to improve the country's deteriorating roads, bridges, and tunnels. But the slow-down in demand for new housing will hurt home builders. The number of government workers will increase 10 percent, mostly in state and local governments. The federal government and the post office will lose a combined 170,000 jobs.

Manufacturing, once the backbone of the American economy, is no longer thriving. Manufacturing jobs will fall by 3 percent, most of them production jobs in the textile, metals, and automobile industries. Those in search of manufacturing jobs stand a better chance in the South. First Union Bank in Charlotte, N.C., found that the Northeast and West Coast lost more than 500,000 manufacturing jobs each year, while the Southeast gained 30,000. Companies are lured to the South by lower costs, non-union labor, economic incentives, and a relaxed lifestyle. The area, particularly the Interstate 85 corridor from the Carolinas to Georgia, has been especially successful in attracting foreign manufacturers.

Not all states are created equal when it comes to serving as attractive places to start you own business. The Corporation for Enterprise Development, a nonprofit research organization in Washington, D.C., has ranked the 50 states based on 12 criteria, including taxes, state economy, and entrepreneurial environment. The most appealing state for starting a business was Colorado, followed Utah, Minnesota Delaware, and Pennsylvania. At the bottom: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Louisiana, and West Virginia, which was dragged down by low business vitality.

The growth in the women's labor force is expected to slow down, bit it will still increase as a faster rate than that of men. The women account today for about 45 percent of the workforce.

Not the the best job opportunities often are not where the most jobs are, but instead where the most growth is. Explosive growth is a relatively small pool indicates an industry in need of a rapid infusion of labor, and that means opportunities galore. The statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics always follow the professions expected to experience the fastest growth in the recent years.