Career Search

Whether you're looking to add to your skill set or make a 180 degree course correction, making informed career decisions requires reliable information about opportunities in the future. In the United States, total employment is expected to increase almost 17% and add almost 20 million new jobs in the next 10 years. The numbers sound big but they're not going to complement every sector in the market. A continued shift from goods-producing to service-providing employment is expected to continue.

Between news reports, conversations with peers, co-workers and career counselors, students entering college and adults re-entering college are typically pretty well aware of the state of the current job market. While the future economic outlook is important, it should only be one factor in making a decision to enter, or change, your career.

From the daily media exposure it's pretty obvious that among the top growth fields, computer and healthcare occupations are two of the biggest gainers, making up 17 of the 20 fastest growing between them. These 2 fields alone will add almost 2 million new jobs. If these two fields are of interest to you, then you will have many opportunities to choose from, and advance in, with your career selection.

But, what if you have no desire to deal with patient care and your interest in computers doesn't go beyond looking at this web page. Good for you. You've already determined that even with all the growth in the world in those fields, it's not for you...and that is just as important.

All the statistics and media hype represent the highest growth fields not the only growth fields. At the end of the day, many of you have made the decision to go back to school because you chose a career based on the statistics at that time. The bottom line is that you will likely spend more than 1/3 of your time at work. Choose something that interest you and something you will like to do. If it happens to fall under the heading of a "high growth" field, so be it.