What Are the Promising Jobs of the Future?

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Spring is the season for new beginnings and renewal. This spring, why not reinvent yourself by changing career path to one of the most promising jobs of the future?

In a recent article for Business Insider magazine, Andy Kiersz and Rachel Gillett compared average salaries with the US Bureau of Labor Statistics projections for job growth by occupation between 2016 and 2026 to identify the 21 most promising jobs of the future.

Promising jobs of the future

Kiersz and Gillett placed the top 21 thus:

21. Farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers
20. Computer systems analysts
19. Wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives, except technical and scientific products
18. Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers
17. First-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers
16. Software systems developers
15. Physical therapists
14. Nurse practitioners
13. Elementary school teachers, except special education

12. Computer and information systems managers
11. Postsecondary health specialties teachers
10. Medical and health services managers
9. Management Analysts
8. Market research analysts and marketing specialists
7. Lawyers
6. Accountants and auditors
5. Specialist physicians and surgeons
4. Financial managers
3. General and operations managers
2. Software developers
1. Registered nurses

The list is dominated by two categories of work: those in the caring professions – healthcare, education – where it would be difficult for a robot to replace essential aspects of the job, and those in IT and technology.

Best jobs of the future

Healthcare jobs also dominated the 10 Best Jobs of the Future: 2017 that featured on ThinkAdvisor. It placed the top 10 most promising jobs of the future thus:

10. Speech Language Pathologist
9. Personal Financial Advisor
8. Market Research Analyst
7. Dental Hygienist
6. Physician Assistant
5. Health Services Manager
4. Physical Therapist
3. Nurse Practitioner
2. Computer Systems Analyst
1. App Developer

The medical needs of the aging population are an important factor in the priorities of the list, but the digital transformation of our society is also driving change – making some jobs less attractive or viable and placing a greater emphasis on the need for software developers, systems analysts and data analysts.

While it is clear that these professions offer great scope for good careers in the near future, their strong potential shouldn’t put you off following other paths if they are more desirable to you.

What’s more, given the pace of societal and technological change, it may be that these lists change dramatically in the coming years – forcing those working in even these promising jobs of the future to think about reinvention again.

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