What Are The Fastest Growing Jobs? Tech Dominates On LinkedIn Analysis

Artificial intelligence specialist, robotics engineer and data scientist are the top three emerging jobs in an annual data analysis released Monday by LinkedIn.

“At this stage, most of the workforce doesn’t work in the emerging field of artificial intelligence,” LinkedIn principal economist Guy Berger said in his introduction to the report, “but that doesn’t mean it won’t impact everyone. Artificial intelligence will require the entire workforce to learn new skills, whether it’s to keep up to date with an existing role or pursuing a new career as a result of automation.”

Berger noted artificial intelligence and data science dominate new job type creation while various engineering positions make up more than half the list. Missing from this year’s list is blockchain developer, possibly because of a “decline in popularity of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies,” he said.

Following the top three jobs were: full stack engineer, site reliability engineer, customer success specialist, sales development representative, data engineer, behavioral health technician, cybersecurity specialist, back end developer, chief revenue officer, cloud engineer, JavaScript developer and product owner.

The list contrasts with data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which projects the top five fastest growing jobs through 2018 as solar photovoltaic installers, wind turbine service technicians, home health aides, personal care aides and occupational therapy assistants. Information security analysts, the first technical job on the BLS list, comes in at No. 6 with software developers at No. 15.

BLS said about 17% of the 818 occupations it tracks will lose more workers than they gain, including locomotive firers, respiratory therapy technicians, parking enforcement workers, word processors and typists, and watch repairers.

The LinkedIn analysis found the tech revolution has produced a generation of workers who want to work remotely – 40% of millennials are considering whether they'll have that flexibility in evaluating job opportunities – moving the workforce out of the central cities and companies’ headquarters.

Despite the tech-heavy nature of the jobs, openings are not concentrated in just tech hubs like Silicon Valley and major cities, but rather in smaller markets, including Austin, Texas; Raleigh-Durham, and Charlotte, North Carolina; Portland, Oregon, and Pittsburgh, with Washington, D.C., and the surrounding metro area attracting top tech talent in cybersecurity, data science and artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence and data science permeate nearly all industries, Berger said, with robotics emerging as a $1.2 trillion AI sector on its own.

Among the insights LinkedIn gleaned from its analysis was that data scientists are backing up more traditional jobs like statisticians in industries such as insurance look to the future while the auto industry is snapping up robotics engineers, data scientists and artificial intelligence specialists as it attempts to produce self-driving vehicles.

The report indicates behavioral health technician jobs, one of the only jobs on the list requiring a four-year college degree, have grown by 32% in the last year as insurance coverage for mental health has expanded, and e-learning’s growth is powering demand for both sales and tech talent.

“A few roles represented in this report – product owner, customer success specialist, and sales development representative -- are in high demand within the tech industry. The future of things like software as a service, a $278 billion dollar industry, will rely on people skills [which can’t be automated] successfully complementing new technologies,” the report says.

The need for artificial intelligence specialists has grown by 74% annually in the past four years with the greatest growth in the San Francisco Bay area, New York, Boston, Seattle and Los Angeles, and concentrated in the computer software, internet, information technology and services, higher education and consumer electronics sectors.

The need for robotics engineers has grown 40% annually in the information and technology and services, industrial automation, computer software, financial services and automotive industries, with the jobs concentrated in the San Francisco Bay area, Atlanta, New York, Boston and Washington, D.C.

There has been a 37% annual growth in data scientist jobs in the infotech, computer software, internet, financial services and higher education sectors, with jobs growing in the San Francisco Bay area, New York, Seattle, Boston and Washington, D.C.

The computer software, infotech, internet, financial services and higher education industries in San Francisco Bay area, New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Washington, D.C., have produced a 35% growth rate in the need for full stack engineers.

Growth in the need for site reliability engineers, customer success specialists and sales development representatives has grown by 34%; data engineer, 33%; behavioral health technicians, 32%; cybersecurity specialists and back end developers, 30%; chief revenue officers, 28%; cloud engineers, 27%; JavaScript developers, 25%, and product owners, 24%.