Face of the Future: Service Jobs in Health Care, Corporate America Projected to Grow

What occupations will make up the jobs in the future? Hint: The service industry will be a bigger and more significant player.

According to the latest 10-year projection released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a small group of occupations — 30 to be exact — will account for nearly half of all new jobs created by 2022. Nearly a quarter of these will be in the health-care industry and corporate America, but occupations in commercial industries like retail and foodservice are also expected to grow.

Personal care aides are forecasted to be the highest group of workers in demand by 2022, representing 580,800 new jobs and growing by 48.8 percent. Other fast-growing occupations of the future included:
•Home health aides, adding 424,700 jobs and growing by 48.5 percent
•Registered nurses, adding 526,800 jobs and growing by 19 percent
•Secretaries and administrative assistants, adding 307,800 jobs and growing by 13.2 percent

Other occupations on the rise included jobs that offer service or support, including food prep workers, retail salespersons, customer service representatives, nursing assistants, janitors and cleaners, carpenters, general and operations managers, construction laborers, material movers, and bookkeepers, auditing and accounting clerks.

Of the occupations expected to add the most new jobs, the BLS noted that two-thirds require a high school diploma or less, while only five typically require a bachelor’s degree.

Economists have been predicting growth of the service industry for a while and have expressed the need to upgrade the pay for service jobs, some of which top out at just $25,000 a year, and improve their quality. Currently, 60 million Americans work in this sector,  and that number is expected to grow as automation continues to phase out more production-based work.

An analysis in the Atlantic Cities of the recent BLS research, however, raises questions about the accuracy of these projections due to the decline in health-care spending and its effect on workers and the growing reliance on automation at corporations as well as in the retail sector.

What’s your take on these projections? Is the service industry growing in your city? If so, which occupations are in the highest demand? Please share your thoughts below.

via:http://businessclimate.com/blog/2014/01/face-future-service-jobs-health-care-corporate-america-projected-grow/