Working Toward Your Goal
September 13th, 2007Sometimes I wonder if the job I have is the right one. (My original major in college was “undecided”.) Of course, a normal response to this question would be to go to your school’s resource center or some such thing, but I’m pretty sure I’m not a normal person, because I turned instead to the Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) and the Career Guide to Industries (CGI), both of which are put out by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Let’s just say that neither are exactly bathroom readers. The OOH even specifically says not to read it cover to cover, and to only use it as a reference. As usual I ignored their sound advice and read it front to back anyway. (Yeah, I have an obsessive-compulsive streak. So sue me.)
Other fun-seekers like myself can probably find the OOH and the CGI gathering dust at the back of your local library. The OOH clocks in at a daunting 660 pages and looks about as readable as the phone book. Oh yeah, and that’s 2 columns a page, small print. Needless to say, it’s probably the longest book I’ve ever read. Nevertheless, there’s a lot of good stuff in there for the patient (or bored), so keep reading.
Your typical OOH entry will give you a brief spiel on what a job is like and a lot of surprisingly useful information, like what the working conditions are, what training you need, projected job growth, salary, and stuff like that. It’s pretty obvious why they leave the job growth/wage data for last, because that’s the most interesting. (*I* certainly would never use such underhanded tricks, *especially* not in this post.) If you’re lucky enough to have the print version of the OOH, there’s even a picture under each entry of someone actually doing that job. I thought that was a pretty neat little touch, as long as you studiously avoid looking at the picture in the “waste treatment plant operator” section. (OK, so the picture for that job actually isn’t gross, I’m just making fun.)
By contrast, the CGI looks at a higher level of data, but in the same way. Instead of breaking down jobs by occupation, it’s done by industry; combined with the OOH, they give you a pretty good idea of the working climate in general for most jobs.
Now that you have a little background, let’s get down to business. First, since I care so much about you, gentle reader (all three of you - hi Mom!), here are the jobs you may want to avoid. For example, manufacturing is tanking. Having read elsewhere that there’s really been no new jobs created in manufacturing in 20 years, I wasn’t surprised. I read entry after entry in the OOH talking about how hard it is to find them. Whether you want to be a machinist or a tool and die maker, you’re facing declining job growth. Your only consolation will be the fact that you don’t have a farm job, the U.S. sector facing the slowest growth/decline across all sectors. (Production occupations are the second slowest in growth.) Whether we like it or not, these jobs are moving to China and other cheap-labor places, and the few jobs that are left will be subject to relentless automation. Even the OOH says bluntly that young people “may not wish to enter production occupations”.
All hope is not lost, though. Production occupations are great for people without a lot of alternatives, or those who learn better on the job than in school. You’ll earn a lot more in a machine shop than at McDonald’s (and probably gain less weight), but you might have to retrain when your plant closes.
Another sector that’s taking a nosedive is administrative/clerical occupations. This is especially important because, like manufacturing, it’s a huge sector. employing around seven and a half million people. To give you an idea how bad things are, here’s a chart of the 20 occupations that have lost the most jobs, 11 of which are in office and administrative support. They, too, are the increasing victims of automation. (I can’t wait till I can have a robot bring me coffee in the morning.)
Now, I don’t think anyone says to themselves “I want to be a filing clerk when I grow up”. (Although there was this one guy I knew in college, maybe…) Really, I think it just happens to a lot of people. That’s not to say you can’t enjoy these jobs, but like the manufacturing folks, be on the lookout for developments that could put you out of work, and try to increase your (non-manufacturing) skills when you can.
On to the question that always seems to be on everyone’s mind - what jobs are hot these days? Thankfully, the BLS was kind enough to provide a chart on the topic. (See here for jobs that pay well in addition to high projected growth.)
One obviously growing field is health care. Despite what they might tell you, the baby boomers are getting older, and because of that demand for health care professionals is unprecedented, as you can see from the BLS chart. My anecdotal experience living here in Florida backs this up; I see an assisted living facility filled with boomers pop up here every other week or so.
I should add, however, that many of these fast-growing health care occupations don’t pay very well. However, if you’re patient they offer a gateway to better (and more stable) wages than clerical work. (And your wrists will probably hold up better!) Given the preponderance of women in clerical and health care work, it would seem like a natural transition for many of them. (Not stereotyping here ladies, I promise; just stating the numbers. My own mother was a programmer, for the record.) Plus, health care workers often say their jobs are more rewarding in personal terms; a die maker isn’t very likely to tell you when you did a great job, after all.
Information technology (IT) occupations are also growing fast. Everyone talks about IT outsourcing, but the BLS apparently didn’t get the memo. My friends that majored in engineering and computer science have never had trouble finding work, I can tell you that much. (Girlfriends are another story.) Personally, since I’ve focused more on IT and less on finance, I’ve found much more demand for my skills. Reading the OOH was a major factor for me in taking up programming, in fact. (I’ll have to make sure to pick up a girlfriend before I switch for good, though.)
A couple of my friends are lucky enough to work in health care and IT, by testing CT scanners and the like. As you might expect, they can pretty much name their salary. If
you can find that kind of work and don’t mind doing it, it’s a great place to be. Well-paid, in-demand work that’s focused on helping other people? Sign me up.
Another occupation mentioned on the BLS chart is postsecondary education. This is one area where the BLS and I differ, though. Articles like this one make me think twice about going for a Ph.D, and I know plenty of people (and have read about many more) that have had trouble getting a job after going back for their doctorate. They are left scrambling for jobs at community colleges, in industry, or switching occupations altogether if they got their degree in a low-demand field, like English. Even if they find work, the salaries they make may not compensate them for the many years (and for some, debts) it takes to get that doctorate. (But they can at least make the romantic claim of being penniless writers - *all* the English majors I’ve known are writing books.) Though the BLS openly states in their statistical spolight that getting a Ph.D. pays, it fails to take into account the lost wages and time while you go to school, and the fact that some doctorate degrees garner much higher salaries than others. If you want to get a Ph.D. for personal reasons, go for it, but otherwise you may want to make sure it’ll be worth your while if you do. (I myself am a Ph.D.
program dropout, so I practice what I preach.)
So, finally, does the OOH say anything about bloggers? It turns out that it does. “Bloggers write for the Internet. Most bloggers write personal reflections on a subject of close personal or professional interest… Most blogs are written for recreational reasons with little expectation of earning a fee… The growing popularity of blogs could allow some writers to get their work read; a few well-written blogs may garner some recognition for the author and may lead to a few paid pieces in other print or electronic publications. However, most bloggers do not earn much money writing their blogs.” Looks like I’m not quitting my day job anytime soon!
Further reading:
OOH Frequently Asked Questions
BLS Job Predictions
National Compensation Survey
Career Guide to Industries Overview
| | | del.icio.us |
September 20th, 2007 at 12:19 am
Fantastic post, Dave. Really, great job here. Looking forward to your future posts.
Dan, you’re too kind. Appreciate the feedback, though.
- Dave
October 4th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
[…] might know by now that if I don’t mind reading something cover-to-cover like the Occupational Handbook (an immense reference book put out by the Department of Labor Statistics), such trivial things like […]
October 5th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
It still blows my mind that a book of this scope exists, let alone that you read the whole damn thing. I hope we can expect more posts that delve into what information you’ve gleaned from it all.
It was a little weird to read, I must admit. And I’d be more than happy to post more about the Occupational Handbook in good time!
- Dave