At the crest of a new year, executives should be carefully examining what industries are showing growth. This will not only influence current positions but also potential career moves over the next five years. We now face new technology, baby boomers retiring, and global markets that are having a huge impact on what jobs have good growth potential and which ones are becoming obsolete.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average growth for most occupations is about 11%. What should concern executives most is what occupations show the largest growth so you can be at the forefront of that industry as a leader.
Industries that are showing a higher growth of up to 20%, according to US News & World Report Money, are Health Care, Technology, Construction, and Social Services.
You may already be a leader of the men and women who are working in these industries. If not, positioning yourself to lead these people is essential to your value as an executive in any of these fields. Let’s take a look at eight of the leading high-growth positions:
Some of the more common high-growth jobs going forward:
Chemical engineers – in large-scale manufacturing that plan and test manufacturing methods for products, solve problems that involve the production of use of chemicals, fuel, medications, food and other products.
Sales engineers – that sell complex products and services in science and technology.
Nuclear engineers – who conduct the research and develop the processes, instruments and systems used to develop benefits from nuclear energy and radiation. Some specialize in developing nuclear power sources for spacecraft while others apply their knowledge to industrial and medical uses for radioactive materials such as medical diagnosis equipment.
Medical and health services managers – overseeing entire facilities that specialize in specific clinical areas.
Systems software developers – that create the systems to keep computers functioning properly including designing operating systems that control consumer electronics like phones and cars.
Less common, still important:
Mathematicians – that analyze data and solve real-world problems.
Economists – who collect and analyze data, research trends and evaluate economic issues to assess the production and distribution of resources, goods, and services.
Securities, commodities, and financial services agents – that advise companies in search of investors and can conduct the trades.
Knowing what companies are looking for in managers and executives can go a long way to becoming more hirable. Understanding enough about the people in these positions to manage and integrate them into your teams will make you, as an executive, highly desirable.
Regardless of the month, you may want to evaluate whether the industry you are currently in is trending or waning. If you don’t perceive high-level growth in your current position and field, consider your options and opportunities for the upcoming years.
What’s Also Fueling Job Growth
As surprising as it sounds in the current employment market, a renowned labor economist projects that there will be more jobs than people to fill them in the United States starting in 2018.
Assuming a return to healthy economic growth and no change in immigration or labor force participation rates, Barry Bluestone, Dean of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University, predicts that within the next eight years there could be at least 5 million potential job vacancies in the United States.
Nearly half of them, he predicts, will be (2.4 million) in the social sector, including education, healthcare, government and nonprofit organizations.
“If the baby boom generation retires from the labor force at the same rate and age as current older workers, the baby bust generation that follows will likely be too small to fill many of the projected new jobs,” states Bluestone’s report, “After the Recovery: Help Needed – The Coming Labor Shortage and How People in Encore Careers Can Help Solve It.”
Bluestone’s research is one of four papers written by independent experts and released by MetLife Foundation and Civic Ventures, a think tank on boomers, work, and social purpose. All four papers assert that engaging workers over 55 in encore careers will be vital to meeting workforce shortages and critical social needs.
Bluestone’s analysis builds on the 2008 MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures Encore Career Survey conducted by Peter D. Hart and Associates, which shows that most people expect to work longer than previous generations, but that half of those aged 44 to 70 want encore careers that combine personal meaning, continued income and social impact.
“Not only will there be jobs for these experienced workers to fill,” Bluestone writes, “but the nation will absolutely need older workers to step up and take them.”