What We’ll Be Doing in 2022

When the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics looks into its crystal ball, it sees an aging population in need of care and a construction industry still rebounding from the Great Recession. In the decade from 2012 to 2022, the fastest growth in U.S. employment will take place in the health care, health care support, construction, and personal care fields. These four categories are expected to account for more than a third—about 6.6 million—of all new jobs.

Farming, fishing, and forestry is the only category expected to shrink. Although most of the growth is expected in fields that don’t require post-secondary education, jobs that demand a college degree or higher are actually growing faster (14.0% versus 9.1%).  And those higher-skilled jobs will pay, on average, more than twice as much ($57,770 per year versus $27,670).

Managerial jobs are growing fastest in IT—no surprise. Also expected to show strong gains are the fields of human resources, public relations, marketing, and operations. The fastest-disappearing jobs are those in industrial production—reflecting the manufacturing sector’s expected continuing decline. And CEOs? Their numbers are projected to grow by just 5.3%.