Toughest Jobs to Fill in 2017

02.22.2017
HR & Safety

The economy and hiring has improved over the past seven years, and now hiring managers are facing challenges filling certain in-demand positions, says a new CareerCast report on the toughest jobs to fill.
Some of the most in-demand positions in 2017 include software engineer, registered nurse, financial advisor, truck driver, and home health aide, the report says.
“The concept of not having enough candidates might have felt foreign at the height of the recession, when unemployment lingered around 10%,” says Kyle Kensing of CareerCast.
“However, improvements in the job market have resulted in a different issue for some industries: labor shortages.”

Skills Challenge: Industry Breakdown

The challenge hiring managers face for many of the most in-demand professions is finding applicants with the necessary skills.
For example, because data scientist is a relatively new career, there isn’t an established workforce of trained professionals. Many universities do not offer data science degree programs, which means workers enter the field from other disciplines.
For truck drivers, who need a special commercial license, the American Trucking Association (ATA) projects nearly 900,000 openings by 2025.
Registered nurse is another high-outlook career. It’s also the profession with the single-most openings currently found in the CareerCast jobs database.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects new nursing hires of nearly a half-million in addition to the 2.75 million currently employed. The actual need by 2024, however, may be closer to 1.1 million—the result of retiring staff leaving the workforce.
Medical services managers must be well-versed both in the economic and medical sides of healthcare. Finding candidates with the necessary acumen in both disciplines can be difficult.
The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce reports healthcare and technology are two majors with the lowest unemployment rates for recent graduates. With a decline in the number of college grads, that means fewer applicants for job openings.
It’s a similar situation for finance and business graduates. The projected growth for one profession in this discipline—financial advisor—is a whopping 30%.
The underlining challenge hiring managers face for the toughest jobs to fill is finding applicants with the necessary skill sets.
CareerCast’s most in-demand jobs for 2017 are:

Profession Annual Median Salary (Source: BLS) Growth Outlook (Source: BLS)
Data Scientist $128,240 16%
Financial Advisor $89,160 30%
General & Operations Manager $97,730 7%
Home Health Aide $21,920 38%
Information Security Analyst $90,120 18%
Medical Services Manager $94,500 17%
Physical Therapist $84,020 34%
Registered Nurse $67,490 16%
Software Engineer $100,690 17%
Truck Driver $40,260 5%

To determine the most in-demand professions, CareerCast.com evaluates BLS data on growth outlook, as well as industry and profession hiring trends over the last decade; trade statistics; university graduate employment data; and the CareerCast database of listings to determine the factors driving hiring needs.

Tags:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Stay Connected with CBIA News Digests

The latest news and information delivered directly to your inbox.

CBIA IS FIGHTING TO MAKE CONNECTICUT A TOP STATE FOR BUSINESS, JOBS, AND ECONOMIC GROWTH. A BETTER BUSINESS CLIMATE MEANS A BRIGHTER FUTURE FOR EVERYONE.