If you want to guarantee yourself a meaningful gig as the twenty-first century marches along, you'd better look good wearing white. Health industry careers are projected to be the number one sector for job openings in the future, especially for those who seek secure, meaningful work and a steady paycheck. The health field holds the key to future employment due, in large part, to people living longer, an increase in medical conditions caused by bad habits like diabetes, stroke and hypertension and pandemic-threatening superbugs resulting from fast adaptations to preventative medicines. Given so bleak a prescription for the world's future medical condition, it's easy to see why almost any job in the health care field offers potential. As a bonus, if you like to move around, a medical career offers enormous potential for landing work around the world. Other hot, future job prospects will be found in technology, food science and a few offbeat categories.
Largest Job Growth
Crowded hospitals, growing concern about MRSA and other bacteria that negatively affect populations in hospitals and nursing homes, plus increased demand for one-on-one help for home-bound sick and aging patients, make home health aides rate number one on lists of the top job categories of the future. Home health care workers and personal home care aides will be needed in myriad roles that range from infrequent visitation to part-time caregiver and full-time day and residential care. Some types of jobs in the field of home health care require little training, but like most fields of endeavor, job candidates with the most amount of training will command the best and highest paying assignments. Basic skills such as take blood pressure and the ability to draw blood and knowledge of first aid may be all that is necessary to qualify for a job in this field, but compassion, a deep dedication to caring for others and a steady disposition are equally as important.
Health-Care Roles Requiring Education
The Department of Labor lists four supporting positions that promise stability and the chance to build a career from the ground up in the years ahead. They are medical assistant, physician's assistant, physical therapy assistant and dental assistant. While some training is required for each of these, research shows that as job openings become hard to fill, doctors and dentists will be more willing to train those possessing a year or two of college and the can-do attitude that separates the average job candidate from the herd. This category of jobs will be found in a variety of venues, from clinics to hospitals and all types of medical offices. Anticipating the growth in this area of medical assistance, community colleges are expected to offer more classes in rudimentary health evaluation and practice to meet anticipated demand.
Technology Jobs
It's no secret that the civilized world, as we know it, would collapse under the weight of a planet without computer technology, so this category of skilled worker is also expected to be in high demand as the decades evolve. Trend trackers predict huge growth in the following job categories: network systems analyst, data communications analyst, software application engineer and system engineer. In addition, techies with a talent for writing software programs that increase security protection for computer systems vulnerable to hacker attacks will be heavily recruited.
Feeding the World
Organic food producers and retailers are revolutionizing the way agriculture works. Sophisticated growing systems like vertical gardens and growing numbers of grocery markets devoted to organic produce will require a virtual army of people to feed our hungry planet. Advanced fertilization, hydration and pesticide control specialists are among the job areas that will be most heavily recruited. To keep agricultural systems in balance, trend trackers have named computational biologist as one of the most important new careers on the horizon. These specialists will advise growers on get the most amount of food from the least amount of soil using minimal fertilizer and little water. From grower to organic grocer to a resurgence of food co-ops, this field is literally and figuratively expected to grow.
Out-of-This-World Careers
Emerging career avenues expected to be in great demand as we approach the first quarter century might be called exotic: These are simulation engineers, genetic counselors, robot builders and robot maintenance professionals, brain analysts and--believe it or not--space tour guides. When considering each of these job categories, you might be tempted to shake your head. But don't be so fast to dismiss them. Folks in the business of making career projections have been right on the money in the past, so if you try to convince your daughter that she should go to law school, but she overrides you because she longs to work in the field of virtual reality, you might want to listen.
Tags: health care, each these, heavily recruited, home health, most amount, this field
