In an uncertain economy, it is a smart move to seek out careers that are projected to experience the most growth. Some industries, such as newspapers, are steadily declining, which may mean future layoffs; others, such as non-computer electronics engineering, are projected to flat line, which may make it difficult to find a job. Here we will feature 10 careers that will show dramatic job growth of 20 percent or more throughout the next decade, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
1. Biomedical Engineers. Job growth is expected to grow by a whopping 72 percent from 2008-2018, giving biomedical engineering the top spot on this list. The Bureau indicates this growth will be driven by a rapidly aging U.S. population, resulting in an increasing number of health issues. Biomedical engineers will be needed to design better medical devices and equipment to meet expected demand.
2. Network Systems/Data Communications Analysts. Job growth of 53 percent is expected for these computer professionals from 2008-2018, placing these careers among the fastest-growing of all careers. Growth is spurred by more and more companies seeking to incorporate newer, faster technologies, which require the services of these experienced IT professionals.
3. Veterinarians. These professionals are expected to experience 33 percent job growth from 2008-2018. The Bureau says the reason is that animal medicine has improved greatly, catching up with human medicine, allowing vets to routinely perform more complex procedures.
4. Computer Software Engineers. These professionals will experience 32 percent employment growth, with growth driven by demand for new and improved Web applications and more sophisticated data processing systems.
5. Physical and Occupational Therapists. These health care careers are expected to grow by 33 percent and 30 percent, respectively, from 2008-2018. Increased demand for these professions will spring from a rapidly aging population with greater rehabilitation needs, the Bureau projects.
6. Civil Engineers. These engineers are expected to experience 24 percent job growth from 2008-2018. Increased demand for civil engineering will result from population growth, creating a need for infrastructure planning, especially transportation systems.
7. Registered Nurses. This profession is expected to see 22 percent employment growth from 2008-2018. The main reasons? An aging nurse force will begin to retire, and more people are expected to choose nurse practitioners over doctors for routine medical care, the Bureau believes.
8. Accountants. Growth of 22 percent is expected for accountants. Demand is driven by the increasing complexity of tax preparation and company finances.
9. Financial Analysts. These financial professionals are expected to see 20 percent job growth, with growth driven by increasing demand for investment advice.
10. Landscape Architects. Finally, landscape architects are projected to experience 20 percent job growth because of the environmental nature of what they do. Growth in this profession will be driven by demand for green space in urban and suburban settings.
This guest post is contributed by Angela Martin, who writes on the topics of Job Search Websites. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: angela.martin77@gmail.com.
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You have got to be kidding me. Civil Engineer and Landscape Architects? The construction industry is lagging behind all other industries. More civil engineers have been laid off than all other engineers. Any research done for this article done at all?
Civil Engineering? I don’t think so. I’m a civil engineer and I’ve never been as pessimistic about my future as I am right now. Civil engineering, for all it’s diversity, is still directly correlated to the construction industry. And the construction industry in this country is dead from coast to coast, with no foreseeable turnaround in the near future. Every level of goverment is now broke, states are cutting back on building projects, time and time again (with more cuts to come in 2011 and beyond), the Federal stimulus program did very little to revive this industry, banks still aren’t lending or at least aren’t financing construction projects, and there were far too many civil engineering companies that overextended themselves during the boom years (particularly if they focused on residential and commercial construction). Unless the baby boomer civil engineers retire en masse, and public/private infrastructure spending increases dramatically over the next couple of years (neither of which is likely), then this industry will never truly recover. Construction unemployment is currently around 30% (worse than unemployment during the Great Depression). So we can probably assume that the unemployment rate among civil engineers is probably just as high if not higher than the national unemployment rate of 10%. For all other engineering disciplines, the rate is much lower. And yet, three years into this ‘recovery’, civil engineering still hasn’t picked up. Just go to any jobs boards and compare the number of listings for civil engineering and any other engineering discipline. The civil engineering openings are hard to find, if there are any at all. But I see plenty of openings for mechanical and electrical engineers instead. The only other engineering fields listed in this article are biomedical and software engineering. The BLS needs to go back and revise their predictions, because it seems quite apparent that they didn’t really take into full account this bad recession when they determined future industry growth rates. I for one don’t think there’s any current or possible future labor shortage within engineering, particularly on the civil side. One could probably argue that our economy can no longer support the current number of engineers within the labor force, not to mention all the universities that keep pumping out tens of thousands of engineering graduates every single year. For those of you considering engineering as a long-term career choice, you should probably reconsider. The curriculum for accounting and nursing is infinitely easier than engineering, and yet people in these professions receive salaries and benefits early in their careers that some of us in engineering can only dream of. Stay away from the traditional engineering fields if you can…….
hey.. what about education course is it not demand now… why?
Approximately, how many [digits] qualified biomedical engineering graduates are found in the whole world now?