Where the Jobs Are

The news last week that General Motors plans to shut down Hummer probably surprised few. After not even a Chinese manufacturer of heavy industrial equipment would agree to take the brand – so last decade – off GM’s hands, the automaker decided to drive a stake through the heart of the gasoline-sucking SUV.

The loss of an estimated 3,000 jobs associated with the shutdown of the brand is regrettable, but the Hummer was a symbol of what Americans should not be producing: stuff nobody wants anymore.

Maybe it’s less than accurate to say that nobody wants Hummers or McMansions or designer duds. Some people still want these things; they just can’t afford them. That’s because they don’t have jobs or, if they have jobs, they fear losing those jobs.

The fear is justified, with unemployment nationwide hovering near double digits and the Fed’s Ben Bernanke predicting a slow economic recovery.

The recession has seen millions of jobs disappear, many of them unlikely to return to U.S. shores. So what’s a country, or a jobseeker, to do?

We can turn to our own U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It forecasts the greatest job growth to come in professional and related sectors. Examining the fastest-growing occupations between 2008 and 2018, the BLS sees:

• The number of biomedical engineers surging 72 percent.
• Network systems and data communications analysts rising 53 percent.
• Home health aides up 50 percent.
• Personal and home care aides increasing 46 percent.
• Financial examiners up 41 percent.

Rounding out the top 10 are medical scientists, physician assistants, skin care specialists, biochemists and biophysicists, and athletic trainers.

The rise in employment for health care workers largely can be attributed to aging baby boomers. And though the health care aide jobs rarely pay well, careers in the sciences and in finance usually do pay decently, sometimes more than decently. They also require education, a bachelor’s degree at the minimum, doctorates for biochemists and biophysicists.

Government, including Arkansas’, can help reduce unemployment by ensuring the training necessary for these in-demand jobs is available, that our colleges and universities have the right programs in place to produce these workers.

As for workers themselves, well, not everyone is in a position to change careers. People have obligations that simply won’t let them take the time necessary to retrain. However, others, including younger workers and those entering college, should consider these trends before embarking down a career path likely to dead end in a few years. (Don’t get us started on journalism. For many of us, it’s a calling more than a career. But would we recommend it to our children? That’s a different question.)