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Article Excerpt
When choosing a career, jobseekers often want to know which occupations offer the best prospects. Generally, occupations with rapid job growth, many new jobs, or many job openings promise better opportunities.
This section shows how employment in occupations is projected to change over the 2006-16 decade. Many of the charts show which occupations or occupational groups are expected to grow fastest (percent growth) or gain the most jobs (numeric growth).
Overall employment growth is projected to average about 10 percent between 2006 and 2016. This average is shown as a dotted vertical line in some charts.
But when it comes to employment prospects, job growth tells only part of the story. Job openings for workers also come from the need to replace workers who retire or leave an occupation permanently for other reasons. Some charts show which occupations are expected to have the most openings for workers who are entering the occupation for the first time. These charts show projected openings both from job growth and from replacement needs (the need to replace workers who leave).
Growth by occupational group
Most charts in this section focus on detailed occupations. To better explain employment trends, however, six charts at the beginning of the section show employment growth in groups of similar occupations.
The following are descriptions of the 10 occupational groups, listed according to their order in the Standard Occupational Classification:
* Management, business, and financial operations occupations. Many of these workers direct the activities of business, government, and other organizations and perform tasks related to finance and business. Examples include school administrators, financial managers, accountants, and food service managers.
* Professional and related occupations. These workers are in educational, healthcare, scientific, artistic, and a variety of other jobs. Examples are physical therapists, engineering technicians, lawyers, writers, interior designers, and computer software engineers.
* Service occupations. This group includes workers who assist the public. Police, cooks, home health aides, flight attendants, child care workers, and cosmetologists are examples.
* Sales and related occupations. Workers in this group are involved in the sale of goods and services, both to businesses and to consumers. Examples include cashiers, insurance sales agents, retail salespersons, telemarketers, and real estate agents.
* Office and administrative support occupations. Workers in this group prepare and file documents, deal with the public, and gather and distribute goods and information. Examples include secretaries, stock clerks, mail carriers, computer operators, and receptionists.
* Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations. Workers in this group tend and harvest renewable resources. Examples include farmworkers, fishing vessel captains, and logging equipment operators. Workers who manage farms or ranches are counted in the management occupations group rather than in this group.
* Construction and extraction occupations. This group includes workers in construction and building trades, such as carpenters and electricians. It also includes occupations in oil and gas extraction and mining, such as roustabouts and mining machine operators.
* Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations. Workers in this group install and maintain all types of equipment. They include avionics technicians, automotive service technicians and mechanics, computer repairers, industrial machinery mechanics, and millwrights.
* Production occupations. Most people in these occupations work as assemblers or machine operators, primarily in manufacturing industries. Examples include computer-controlled machine tool operators, machinists, textile occupations, power plant operators, and chemical equipment operators.
* Transportation and material moving occupations. Workers in this group include airline pilots, truck drivers, locomotive engineers, and parking lot attendants.
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