5 of the Best Industries for Job Seekers and Recruiters in 2017

December 2, 2016 Rob Zaldivar

Every good business experiences periods of growth. Some are influenced by customer demand, while others are spurred on by changing technology. CareerBuilder has have identified five industries in a new study that are poised for fast growth in 2017, which would be great news for both candidates and talent acquisition teams.

The new study uses CareerBuilder and Emsi’s extensive labor market database, which pulls from a variety of national and state employment resources as well as online job postings. Industries with the greatest potential were identified by three main factors:

Occupations that pay, on average, around $20 or more per hour
Employment has grown faster than the overall labor market from 2012 to 2016
Occupations have high employment numbers that translate to even more job opportunities to job seekers

CareerBuilder CEO Matt Ferguson believes that growth in these categories may be due to factors beyond simple supply and demand:

Our research shows that employers are very invested in expanding headcount in areas such as analytics and data science, product development and sales as they strive to stay competitive in B2B and B2C markets.

The table below shows industries and occupations where workers will find a larger number of opportunities in the coming year. (Note: The average hourly earnings are for the category overall. The job titles listed can earn significantly higher than the average.)

Occupation Category	2012 Jobs	2016 Jobs	2012-2016 Increase in Jobs	Average Hourly Earnings	Examples of In Demand Job Titles
Business and Financial Operations	7,358,038	7,938,303	585,265 8%	$35.09	Operations Manager Business Process Analyst Product Development Specialist Financial Analyst *Office Manager
Information Technology	3,926,758	4,398,862	472,104 12%	$40.82	Data Scientist User Interface / Front End Developer Product Manager Mobile Software Engineer *Information Security Manager
Health Care	8,035,052	8,641,939	606,887 8%	$37.77	Family Practitioner Medical Director ICU Nurse Cardiologist Physical Therapist Rehabilitation Nurse
Sales	15,143,749	16,057,815	914,066 6%	$19.06	Account Executive Account Manager Business Development Manager Client Services Coordinator
Skill Trades	12,049,958	13,067,497	1,017,539 8%	$21.38	Electrician Plumber *HVAC Technician

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5 of the Best Industries for Job Seekers and Recruiters in 2017

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