Nearly 600 occupations are expected to see a 5% or more growth in jobs by 2017. Data include jobs of all skill levels in the 125 largest metros. About this report
Andre Jones is making more money a year and a half out of college than he ever would have solely on the merits of his geography degree. When the 25 year-old was laid off from his job as a digital mapper, he decided to do something about his nascent interest in building a website.
Jones started taking online courses in coding languages, and spent the past summer at an intensive boot camp for coders. He had three job offers by the end of June. Now he makes double his previous technician salary as a developer for a Pittsburgh-based start-up called Geospatial Corporation.
“The job market is really strong and they desperately need people,” Jones says of the exponential growth in companies looking for anyone with tech, engineering and computer skills.
And those aren’t the only kinds of jobs companies are desperate to fill.
Computer engineers, data analysts, physician assistants, software developers and petroleum engineers, to name a few, are expected to become the most lucrative and highest demand professions in the next three years, according to a USA TODAY analysis of workforce projections by Economic Modeling Specialists Intl., a division of CareerBuilder.
The analysis shows 1.8 million new high-skill jobs are expected to be created by 2017, about a 6% increase from 2013. These jobs, which require at least a four-year bachelor’s degree, will account for 27% of all new jobs in the next three years.
• Four metros in Texas, three in Utah and three in the Pacific Northwest are expected to see significant job growth across most high-skill occupations, creating nearly 260,000 jobs. America’s biggest cities – New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Boston and Chicago – will be job generators too, with more than 322,000 jobs total.
• Jobs with the highest expected growth rates may be relatively rare jobs, such as interpreters (projected growth of 19%) and genetic counselors (17%). But traditional, ubiquitous jobs such as teachers, managers and accountants top the list of occupations adding the greatest number of new jobs. Nearly 280,000 new jobs for elementary, secondary and postsecondary teachers are expected to be added by 2017.
• STEM jobs – those requiring a mastery of science, technology, engineering or math skills – are overwhelmingly in high demand and will account for about 38% of all high-skill jobs created; they are also typically among the highest paid.
Source: USA Today