Analysis reveals hottest professions for 2016
Posted December 7, 2015
A recent report shows the forecasted most in-demand occupations for 2016. In partnership with Economic Modeling Specialists Intl. (EMSI), CareerBuilder compiled a list of prominent jobs for the upcoming year. It is comprised of occupations where the number of job ads companies post each month outpaces the number of people they actually hire.
The list includes other data points, such as job growth and salary, which together indicate that these well-paying occupations have seen healthy growth and may be in demand in the coming year.
The analysis used EMSI’s labor market database, which pulled from over 90 national and state employment resources. CareerBuilder and EMSI looked at the average number of people hired per month in more than 700 occupations from January 2015 to September 2015 and compared that to the number of job postings for each occupation (aggregated from online job sites for the same period).
Among occupations that require a college education and have the largest gap between job openings and hires are the following:
| Occupation | Average Monthly Unique Job Postings | Average Monthly Hires | Gap Between Postings and Hires | Job Growth 2010-2015 | Total Employment in 2015 | Median Hourly Earnings |
| Registered nurses | 296,631 | 97,549 | 199,082 | 171,097 | 2,776,836 | $32.04 |
| Software developers, applications | 114,921 | 31,272 | 83,649 | 126,277 | 727,753 | $45.92 |
| Marketing managers | 91,630 | 8,447 | 83,183 | 23,692 | 193,619 | $61.12 |
| Sales managers | 70,558 | 17,750 | 52,808 | 35,339 | 370,648 | $53.20 |
| Medical and health services managers | 63,683 | 11,850 | 51,833 | 26,080 | 321,961 | $44.62 |
| Network and computer systems administrators | 69,636 | 18,568 | 51,068 | 36,640 | 381,001 | $36.44 |
| Industrial engineers | 55,264 | 7,985 | 47,279 | 25,426 | 244,225 | $39.18 |
| Computer systems analysts | 71,555 | 24,703 | 46,852 | 87,023 | 556,922 | $39.76 |
| Web developers | 52,431 | 6,641 | 45,790 | 22,282 | 130,161 | $30.52 |
| Financial managers | 63,157 | 23,251 | 39,906 | 37,458 | 542,618 | $55.44 |
| Physical therapists | 49,712 | 10,001 | 39,711 | 27,473 | 210,377 | $39.61 |
| Pharmacists | 44,738 | 13,202 | 31,536 | 14,591 | 296,530 | $58.15 |
| Accountants and auditors | 103,868 | 75,968 | 27,900 | 133,042 | 1,278,617 | $31.70 |
| Information security analysts | 31,059 | 3,547 | 27,512 | 15,180 | 85,133 | $42.74 |
| Occupational therapists | 31,546 | 5,474 | 26,072 | 11,952 | 114,897 | $37.89 |
| Speech-language pathologists | 27,789 | 5,379 | 22,410 | 9,641 | 128,692 | $34.40 |
| Computer and information systems managers | 35,758 | 14,001 | 21,758 | 42,942 | 347,810 | $61.37 |
| Mechanical engineers | 28,033 | 9,920 | 18,113 | 28,646 | 280,416 | $39.93 |
| Human resources managers | 23,231 | 5,916 | 17,315 | 14,218 | 124,618 | $49.41 |
Among occupations that don’t typically require a college degree but have gaps between job openings and hires are1:
| Occupation | Average Monthly Unique Job Postings | Average Monthly Hires | Gap Between Postings and Hires | Job Growth 2010-2015 | Total Employment in 2015 | Median Hourly Earnings |
| Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers | 1,091,024 | 106,355 | 984,669 | 208,932 | 1,695,977 | $19.00 |
| Food service managers | 52,132 | 18,724 | 33,408 | 24,690 | 203,311 | $23.34 |
| Computer user support specialists | 63,533 | 32,596 | 30,937 | 85,324 | 645,478 | $22.89 |
| Insurance sales agents | 40,909 | 22,075 | 18,834 | 69,125 | 635,431 | $23.01 |
| Medical records and health information technicians | 21,505 | 7,609 | 13,896 | 15,456 | 194,723 | $17.26 |
| Surgical technologists | 10,864 | 3,150 | 7,714 | 11,186 | 103,054 | $20,84 |
| Bus and truck mechanics and diesel engine specialists | 19,074 | 13,427 | 5,647 | 25,434 | 252,286 | $20.98 |
| Transportation, storage, and distribution managers | 10,118 | 5,048 | 5,070 | 10,454 | 111,859 | $41.06 |
| Purchasing agents, except wholesale, retail, and farm products | 16,647 | 11,973 | 4,674 | 19,003 | 300,486 | $29.32 |
| Medical secretaries | 23,893 | 20,786 | 3,107 | 74,124 | 550,716 | $15.50 |
| Property, real estate, and community association managers | 12,271 | 9,330 | 2,941 | 15,486 | 179,689 | $26.09 |
| Lodging managers | 4,505 | 2,605 | 1,900 | 2,519 | 32,300 | $22.93 |
| Claims adjusters, examiners, and investigators | 10,052 | 9,409 | 643 | 12,896 | 278,596 | $29.91 |
1Some occupations may require additional training after high school.
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