We all know that the job market is in a state of change thanks to changes in technology, automation, and the aging population. There will be jobs lost and jobs gained. But what will those jobs be?

I looked at the very informative Bureau of Labor Statistics website for some answers.

The chart below shows a list of the fasting growing occupations, and includes some jobs that pay well, but it doesn’t tell how many of each. However if you click on the occupation you can get more information.

For example, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/installation-maintenance-and-repair/wind-turbine-technicians.htm tells us that this position is growing by about 1900 jobs per year. However, not many people would want this job. “Wind turbine service technicians generally work outdoors, in confined spaces, and often at great heights. Although the majority of windtechs work full time, they may also be on call to handle emergencies during evenings and weekends”. I know a couple whose husband has this job. They literally only see each other a few times per year because of the travel.

OCCUPATION	GROWTH RATE, 2021-31	2021 MEDIAN PAY
Nurse practitioners	46%	$120,680 per year
Wind turbine service technicians	44%	$56,260 per year
Ushers, lobby attendants, and ticket takers	41%	$24,440 per year
Motion picture projectionists	40%	$29,350 per year
Cooks, restaurant	37%	$30,010 per year
Data scientists	36%	$100,910 per year
Athletes and sports competitors	36%	$77,300 per year
Information security analysts	35%	$102,600 per year
Statisticians	33%	$95,570 per year
Umpires, referees, and other sports officials	32%	$35,860 per year
Web developers	30%	$77,030 per year
Animal caretakers	30%	$28,600 per year
Choreographers	30%	$42,700 per year
Taxi drivers	28%	$29,310 per year
Medical and health services managers	28%	$101,340 per year
Logisticians	28%	$77,030 per year
Physician assistants	28%	$121,530 per year
Solar photovoltaic installers	27%	$47,670 per year
Animal trainers	27%	$31,280 per year
Physical therapist assistants 26% $61,180 per year

The next chart tells another part of the job story. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook’s list of 20 Occupations with the most new projected jobs for 2021-2031, there will be approximately 4,230,400 new jobs in these 20 occupations.

OCCUPATION	NUMBER OF NEW JOBS (PROJECTED), 2021-31	2021 MEDIAN PAY
Fast food and counter workers	243,200	$25,100 per year
Waiters and waitresses	197,000	$26,000 per year
Bartenders	92,000	$26,350 per year
Maids and housekeeping cleaners	116,400	$28,780 per year
Home health and personal care aides	924,000	$29,430 per year
Cooks, restaurant	459,900	$30,010 per year
Stockers and order fillers	157,900	$30,110 per year
Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand	168,400	$31,230 per year
First-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers	145,700	$36,570 per year
Medical assistants	117,800	$37,190 per year
Light truck drivers	110,700	$38,280 per year
Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers	90,900	$48,310 per year
Market research analysts and marketing specialists	150,300	$63,920 per year
Registered nurses	195,400	$77,600 per year
Management analysts	108,400	$93,000 per year
General and operations managers	209,800	$97,970 per year
Medical and health services managers	136,200	$101,340 per year
Nurse practitioners	112,700	$120,680 per year
Software developers	370,600	$120,730 per year
Financial managers	123,100	$131,710 per year

Last Modified Date: Thursday, September 8, 2022

I did the math and found that from the second chart, the total number of the top 20 listed jobs is 4,230,400. Of these, over half, 2,733,000 jobs pay less than $38,280 per year. Then there are 436,600 jobs that pay between $48,310 and 77,600, which would be considered middle class for a single income family. There are a little over 1,000, 000 jobs projected in the $93,000 to 131,710 salary category of which most of these are managerial and professional positions including nurse practitioners and a large number of software developers.

Salary	Number of Jobs
>$38,280	2,733,000
$48,310-77,600	436,600
$93,000-131,710	1,060,800

Labor force Projections

The BLS website states that 8.3 million jobs are projected to be created over the next ten years which is less than the previous decade due to a lower fertility rate and reduced immigration numbers. While many people over 65 are expected to leave the labor force, many older workers are also expected to continue working and enter the workforce.

Which jobs will be growing and shrinking?

Retail jobs are expected to continue to decline due to online shopping. Leisure and hospitality, business and technical, and healthcare-related jobs will increase. However, jobs that can easily be automated will decline.

Three occupational groups–office and administrative support occupations, production occupations, and sales and related occupations–are projected to lose jobs over the 2021–31 decade. Sixteen of the 20 occupations with the largest declines in employment levels over 2021–31 are classified in one of these three groups. The automation of tasks is a main factor behind the projected employment declines of many of these occupations. Cashiers, whose tasks can largely be replaced by self-checkout, is projected to lose the most jobs of all occupations, while word processors and typists is projected to experience the sharpest drop in employment over the projections period.

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecopro.nr0.htm

There will be jobs available for people with the right skills and knowledge. Use this information to help your children or yourself plan for the future.