The New Year doesn't have to mean resolving yet again to lose that extra 20 pounds or go to the gym every morning. Flipping the calendar ahead can also be a good occasion to take stock of your professional life and work on making improvements or changes. Unemployment rates in the US are at their lowest in years, job openings are on the rise, and technology is growing at an unprecedented rate. That makes 2016 one of the best times in history to be looking for a new position, especially for those of us in tech.
Which industries and jobs provide the best opportunity? Recent research from CareerBuilder, in partnership with Economic Modeling Specialists Intl. (EMSI), produced a list of the hottest in-demand jobs for 2016. They found that while the largest total number of jobs is in healthcare, technology is a close second. In fact, IT-related jobs made up 28% of all monthly unique job postings. Of the top 20 positions in the list, eight were in high tech, six were in healthcare, two were in finance, and another two in marketing and sales.
The hiring gap in technology careers was especially large, as well. Of the 375,000 tech jobs openings posted each month, companies are only able to fill 98,000. That equates to a job seeker's market.
CareerBuilder based its research on the number of job ads companies posted each month, compared to the number of people they actually hired. It covered more than 700 occupations during the period from January 2015 to September 2015 and used EMSI's labor market database, which pulls from 90 national and state employment resources. The report also includes data points such as job growth and salary, which indicate demand in the coming year.
So if you're thinking of making a career move or change in the coming year, take a look at the following six IT job categories, where there is opportunity aplenty.
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Average monthly job postings: 114,921 Average monthly hires: 31,272 Job growth 2010-2015: 126,277 Total employment in 2015: 727,753 Median hourly earnings: $45.92
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Average monthly job postings: 69,636 Average monthly hires: 18,568 Job growth 2010-2015: 36,640 Total employment in 2015: 381,001 Median hourly earnings: $36.44
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Average monthly job postings: 71,555 Average monthly hires: 24,703 Job growth 2010-2015: 87,023 Total employment in 2015: 556,922 Median hourly earnings: $39.76
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Average monthly job postings: 52,431 Average monthly hires: 6,641 Job growth 2010-2015: 22,282 Total employment in 2015: 130,161 Median hourly earnings: $30.52
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Average monthly job postings: 31,059 Average monthly hires: 3,547 Job growth 2010-2015: 15,180 Total employment in 2015: 85,133 Median hourly earnings: $42.74
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Average monthly job postings: 35,758 Average monthly hires: 14,001 Job growth 2010-2015: 42,942 Total employment in 2015: 347,810 Median hourly earnings: $61.37
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