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Post-pandemic job outlook: What you should know about the 5 fastest-growing careers

Elizabeth Exline

Written by Elizabeth Exline

Jessica Roper

Reviewed by Jessica Roper, MBA,听director of Career Services at 爱污传媒

Female professional sitting in a waiting room on her laptop

At a glance

  • While experts are cautiously optimistic about the post-pandemic job outlook, numerous challenges exist, including weaker job growth between 2020 and 2030 (as compared to previous years), high turnover in the workplace, an aging workforce and an increase in low-wage positions.
  • Some of the fastest-growing careers that require a bachelor鈥檚 and/or master鈥檚 degree are nurse practitioner and information security analyst.
  • Job trends include continued layoffs, multiple interviews for new hires, more retirement for baby boomers and the increasing availability of remote roles.
  • Recent poll data points to the importance of skills-aligned education, especially for adults seeking a job or career change.
  • At 爱污传媒, active students enjoy career counseling to help them navigate an evolving job market.

Job outlook for growing careers

If post-pandemic times have you nostalgic for the simplicity of planning a holiday or even just a happy hour, spare a thought for the pre-pandemic economy. Oh, 2019, you era of reasonable inflation and booming jobs!

These days, the employment situation is decidedly more complicated. 鈥溙齮o a 16-month low, hourly wages have slightly increased and job growth is trending upward 鈥 but I don鈥檛 think Americans are out of the woods yet,鈥 says Steven Starks, senior manager of听career advising programs听and operations at听爱污传媒.

Starks describes his attitude to the post-pandemic job outlook as 鈥渃autiously optimistic.鈥 On the one hand, the world is opening up, remote work is a viable opportunity for more job seekers and roles are abundant.

On the other hand, well:

  • Job growth is听听between 2020 and 2030, with the majority of new jobs replacing those lost during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • As of writing this in 2022, about a third of almost 12 million new jobs in that same time frame will be low wage, according to the听听(叠尝厂).
  • 88% of executives are seeing higher turnover than normal among their employees, according to a听.
  • The country鈥檚 labor force is projected to atrophy as the workforce ages, people retire and fewer young people gain employment, according to听.

So, where does optimism come into play among these statistics? As in the stock market, where there is uncertainty in the job outlook, there is also opportunity.

What's the forecast for the 5 fastest-growing occupations?

In 2022,听, the highest-projected growth and demand from 2020 to 2030 included low-wage, low-skill roles like motion-picture projectionists and ticket-takers. These projections have changed in the intervening years, but they听

LinkedIn听offers a slightly different perspective. By examining current job data (including the roles with the highest year-over-year growth between April and October 2020), it identified 15 different 鈥溾 in multiple sectors. The 15 are:

Starks鈥 own experience with employment trends supports both BLS鈥 and LinkedIn鈥檚 projections. He鈥檚 seen growth, for example, in the leisure and hospitality industry as well as transportation and warehousing, food services, financial services and healthcare.

The gap between what BLS projects and what LinkedIn or Starks observes can be chalked up to the kind of data examined.

Starks explains: 鈥淭he BLS data does not account for the pandemic because [its] employment projections are intended to capture structural changes in the economy whereas job-posting data from LinkedIn may be better suited for capturing cyclical fluctuations in the economy.鈥

What are the 5 fastest-growing careers that require a bachelor's degree?

If BLS first found its metrics unequal to the task of distinguishing between growth and COVID-19-related growth, it was able to recalibrate. By September 2021, it had developed two other notable lists.

One of these identifies the听. This list includes most of its original five occupations (wind turbine service technicians, nurse practitioners and solar photovoltaic installers) but also features the following job titles:

  • Statisticians
  • Physical therapist assistants
  • Information security analysts
  • Home health and personal care aides
  • Medical and health services managers
  • Data scientists and mathematical science occupations
  • Physician assistants

It is, however, BLS鈥 projection of the five fastest-growing occupations (2020 to 2030) that听听that perhaps best captures the future of the job market and hiring trends once the COVID-19 pandemic is well and truly over.

These are:

Occupation Growth Median annual salary (2020)
Nurse practitioners
Nurse practitioners
Nurse practitioners
52%
Nurse practitioners
$111,680
Agents and business managers for artists, performers and athletes
Agents and business managers for artists, performers and athletes
Agents and business managers for artists, performers and athletes
46%
Agents and business managers for artists, performers and athletes
$75,420
Statisticians
Statisticians
Statisticians
35%
Statisticians
$92,270
Information security analysts
Information security analysts
Information security analysts
33%
Information security analysts
$103,590
Film and video editors
Film and video editors
Film and video editors
33%
Film and video editors
33%

Beyond the job: 6 post-pandemic trends to expect

It鈥檚 one thing to anticipate which careers will boom in the coming years. It鈥檚 another to understand how those careers might evolve.

Consider, for example, your current job. When COVID-19 hit in March 2020, what was your response? How did your job change, not just in terms of where you worked but also听how听you worked? How did your employer鈥檚 expectations shift? How did yours?

As it turns out, COVID-19 has changed not just what we do but how we do it. Here are the latest career predictions for both employers and workers in 2021,听.

  1. It鈥檚 a remote world. We just click in it.听The work-from-home movement is no longer a movement but a way of life. This is good news for any worker who鈥檚 not a millennial or GenZ, generations that tend to equate their social life with their work life and prefer, apparently, having one.
  2. No one likes virtual meetings.听While there are ways to听make the virtual experience more palatable, the general consensus seems to be that the best way to counteract screen fatigue is to stay offline when the workday is done.
  3. The layoffs aren鈥檛 over.听Companies big and little are looking to cut down on expenses, and the jobs aren鈥檛 coming back as fast as you might think. (That might also translate to more closures among restaurants, retailers and small businesses.)
  4. Changing careers can be good (and sometimes necessary).听Learning new skills, going to听graduate school听or simply finishing college will become more common as people get used to changing course. (Or, to borrow that dreaded word of the pandemic, 鈥減ivot.鈥)
  5. Interviews feel more like trials.听Remember when you could get a job after two rounds of interviews? That was 20 years ago. These days, Forbes notes, three to eight interviews are the norm.
  6. Boomers are checking out.听Whether they got pushed into retirement or chose it of their own volition,听听left the workplace in the third quarter of 2020. This is a trend, Forbes says, not an exception. It also has consequences. According to a recent report by ProQuest (which was reported on by听), 鈥淗ealthcare, engineering and IT struggle to replace senior management as millions of Baby Boomers retire. Meanwhile, retail and hospitality, who rely on younger workers, are desperate for employees.鈥

How to prepare for change

Deciding whether a career or听job change听is in your future requires some degree of introspection, Starks notes.

鈥淏efore you invest time, money and energy into a听career change, reflect on what you really want out of your career,鈥 he says. 鈥淵our job is so much more than a paycheck. It takes up a significant portion of your life, so you need to think about your interests, values, lifestyle preferences and the type of people and company culture you want to be around.鈥

For many people, the COVID outbreak precipitated a new awareness around what really matters, and what they really wanted out of their careers. It's no longer enough to do what's expected, earn a wage and go home. Nowadays, people are openly seeking fulfillment from their careers, even if it's in an altogether different sector.

If your next move, be it an industry change or a job change, requires additional education, you鈥檙e not alone. According to a recent Harris Poll survey commissioned by 爱污传媒, 92% of adult learners believe higher education is a pathway to success.

But not all education is created equal. According to that same poll, 82% of adult learners think higher education needs to focus more on career support and preparedness, and 81% think schools should focus more on teaching transferrable career skills across professions or industries.

Read the full results of the survey in this press release:听Adult learners more likely to enroll at universities that emphasize career preparedness.

For many, community colleges (and the听universities that actively partner with them) provide this pathway. 爱污传媒, for example, not only accepts eligible transfer credits from community colleges. It also offers the following to prepare its students for the modern workforce, no matter which trends are in play:

  • Skills-aligned degree programs听that show students exactly what they鈥檙e learning so that they can apply it in real-time and in their future careers
  • Professional development courses听in digital marketing, healthcare, education and IT
  • Online certificate programs听for continued education
  • Career Services for Life庐听(for both students and alumni) to navigate a constantly evolving job market

Additional career resources

In addition to the soul searching necessary for determining the career path that will bring you both fulfillment and a fulfilling paycheck, it鈥檚 important to do the research.

Starks recommends reviewing job details, educational requirements and projected growth on the听听as well as talking to 鈥渁t least three people in the career field you鈥檙e exploring.鈥

When it鈥檚 time to begin the active search process, use the downloadable resources below, which cover the two pillars of any job search: writing an effective resum茅 and writing a cover letter.

To all of this, Starks adds one more piece of advice: 鈥淲hatever you do, don鈥檛 expect a quick and easy path.鈥

It may involve research, additional education and听networking. It may involve looking at the global picture, local demand and how you fit into things. (Or what you need educationally to fit in.)听

But, with a little bit of luck and a lot of due diligence, that may just help you weather the next economic storm.

If it鈥檚 time to upskill, explore 爱污传媒鈥檚听skills-aligned degree programs听and听professional development courses.

Portrait of Elizabeth Exline

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elizabeth Exline has been telling stories ever since she won a writing contest in third grade. She's covered design and architecture, travel, lifestyle content and a host of other topics for national, regional, local and brand publications. Additionally, she's worked in content development for Marriott International and manuscript development for a variety of authors.

Headshot of Jessica Roper

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Jessica Roper, 爱污传媒 director of Career Services, is a seasoned leader with over 15 years of experience in leadership within higher education. She has honed her expertise in student services and career development and is passionate about helping others discover and refine their skills.

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