Top 10 Most In Demand Jobs...

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) recently sent out an article by Tony Lee describing the 10 toughest jobs to fill. Their choice of language using "toughest jobs to fill" was intentional because their audience is primarily businesses looking to hire candidates. I've titled this blog the Top 10 Most In Demand Jobs because most of my audience are job seekers. Regardless, the SHRM article highlights the fact that while 2015 has been a very challenging year for businesses to find qualified candidates 2016 is shaping up to be even more problematic. 

So without further ado, here are the positions expected to be most in demand:

• Data Scientist. Everyone is talking 'Big Data' and finding folks with the statistical and analytical chops to translate data into meaningful and actionable information are already highly sought after and that trend will only continue as roughly 6,000 companies are expected to hire for an estimated 4.4 million IT jobs with direct ties to data analysis next year. 
• Electrical Engineers. Any type of Engineering is in high demand but the article points out that there are currently 17 openings for every electrical engineering candidate. 
• General and Operations Managers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates a 12.4 percent growth rate in demand through 2022 equating to more than 600,000 openings over the next seven years.
• Home Health Aide. Due to the rising number of seniors, nearly 600,000 positions will need to be filled - a 48% increase in hiring over the next seven years. 
• Information Security Analyst. With all the news about cyber threats and personal information being compromised on-line, it's probably no surprise this position makes the list. Microsoft reports that North American companies will need to hire at least 2.7 million cloud-computing workers including those doing information security work and that supply will not meet this demand.
• Marketing Managers. This one caught me by surprise as it seems that American colleges are turning out a ton of marketing majors. I would hazard a guess that most companies are looking for seasoned, experienced Marketing Managers and its the age-old dilemma - how do entry level candidates get the experience necessary to be competitive for these jobs.
• Medical Services Managers. The BLS projects 73,300 new hires will be needed in the field by 2022 due in large part to changes in Health Care and a aging population.
• Physical Therapists. Starting to recognize a pattern here with a lot of health care-related positions increasingly in demand. The American Physical Therapy Association estimates that in 2016, demand for full-time physical therapists will exceed 229,000, with a pool of candidates of around 196,000—creating a gap of 33,000 unfilled jobs.
• Registered Nurses. Again, not too much of a surprise. Pinnacol hires RN's as Medical Case Managers frequently. Fortunately, being an office environment, we offer nurses a nice alternative from the traditional nursing world of 12 hour shifts and substantial lifting of patients. The average age of working nurses is 42 so between retirements and the growth in health care more than 1 million nurses will have to be hired over the next 7 years.
• Software Engineer. You already know that computer jobs are hot right now and will continue to be so. Estimates are that in 2016 there will be three jobs available for every new college graduate from a computer science program.