Fastest-growing jobs: projections through 2035
Nurse practitioners lead this national ranking, with 41% projected employment growth from 2025 to 2035.
At a glance
Nurse practitioners lead this national ranking, with 41% projected employment growth from 2025 to 2035. Fast growth measures a percentage change, not the number of jobs available to each applicant. Compare the growth rate with annual openings and entry education before deciding which career deserves a closer look.
- Percentage growth and the number of added jobs answer different questions.
- Annual openings include replacement demand, not just new positions.
- AI exposure describes relative exposure and does not predict which jobs will disappear.
Which jobs are projected to grow fastest?
Occupations ranked by projected employment growth from 2025 to 2035.
| Occupation | Change, 2025 to 2035 (%) | Change, 2025 to 2035 (thousands) | Openings per year (thousands) | Typical education for entry | Relative AI exposure |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nurse practitioners | 41% | 137.8 | 29.4 | Master's degree | High |
| Solar photovoltaic installers | 36.5% | 11.3 | 4.2 | High school diploma or equivalent | Moderate |
| Data scientists | 34.6% | 95.4 | 24.8 | Bachelor's degree | Very high |
| Wind turbine service technicians | 29.5% | 3.5 | 1.5 | Postsecondary nondegree award | Moderate |
| Medical and health services managers | 24.2% | 155.1 | 62.3 | Bachelor's degree | High |
| Physical therapist assistants | 23% | 26.2 | 18.5 | Associate's degree | Low |
| Psychiatric technicians | 22.3% | 36 | 17 | Postsecondary nondegree award | Moderate |
| Computer and information research scientists | 21.8% | 8.4 | 2.9 | Master's degree | Very high |
| Occupational therapy assistants | 21.5% | 11.2 | 8.1 | Associate's degree | Moderate |
| Ophthalmic medical technicians | 21.4% | 15.5 | 11.8 | Postsecondary nondegree award | Low |
| Physician assistants | 21.1% | 35.7 | 11.5 | Master's degree | Low |
| Information security analysts | 21% | 40.6 | 14.1 | Bachelor's degree | Very high |
| Occupational health and safety technicians | 19.4% | 6.1 | 3.8 | High school diploma or equivalent | Moderate |
| Hearing aid specialists | 19.4% | 2.2 | 0.9 | High school diploma or equivalent | Moderate |
| Epidemiologists | 18.7% | 2.4 | 0.8 | Master's degree | High |
| Occupational health and safety specialists | 18.5% | 26.4 | 17.1 | Bachelor's degree | High |
| Substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors | 18.4% | 98 | 50.5 | Master's degree | High |
| Home health and personal care aides | 18.1% | 847.3 | 760.5 | High school diploma or equivalent | Moderate |
| Health specialties teachers, postsecondary | 17.9% | 49.9 | 24.9 | Doctoral or professional degree | Very high |
| Industrial machinery mechanics | 17.8% | 79.7 | 44.4 | High school diploma or equivalent | Moderate |
| Logisticians | 17.6% | 44.9 | 26.6 | Bachelor's degree | Very high |
| Nursing instructors and teachers, postsecondary | 17.1% | 16.5 | 8.5 | Doctoral or professional degree | Very high |
| Speech-language pathologists | 16.6% | 32.1 | 12.5 | Master's degree | High |
| Health information technologists and medical registrars | 15.9% | 6.7 | 3 | Associate's degree | Very high |
| Computer and information systems managers | 15.8% | 108.1 | 53.5 | Bachelor's degree | Very high |
| Massage therapists | 15.3% | 23.7 | 20.4 | Postsecondary nondegree award | Low |
| Occupational therapists | 14.8% | 25.2 | 10 | Master's degree | High |
| Diagnostic medical sonographers | 13.9% | 12.9 | 6 | Associate's degree | Moderate |
| Marriage and family therapists | 13.5% | 10.3 | 6.9 | Master's degree | High |
| Forensic science technicians | 13.3% | 2.7 | 2.8 | Bachelor's degree | High |
Why fast growth does not mean many openings
The nurse practitioner projection adds 137.8 thousand jobs over the period. Multiplying by a thousand gives about 137,800 jobs, not that many openings every year.[1]
A small occupation can grow quickly while offering fewer openings than a large occupation growing slowly. Read the annual openings column separately from the growth column.[1]
Which jobs will survive AI?
This dataset cannot answer that question. The exposure categories describe relative exposure to AI and do not predict job loss, automation probability or wage effects.[1]
Use the category to prompt questions about changing tasks and training. It is not evidence that a high-exposure career will vanish or a low-exposure career is safe.[1]
Method and limits
These are national projections for 2025 to 2035, released in August 2026. Local demand can differ; projections depend on economic and population assumptions and are updated annually.[1]
What this means for your next step
Compare a shortlist against local postings and the cost of qualifying. Ask what tasks are changing before paying for a credential based on a growth percentage.
Use the career change guide to plan a route, then prepare examples with the resume examples.
Data and method
Fastest-growing occupations, 2025 to 2035
The 30 occupations BLS projects to grow fastest in percent terms from 2025 to 2035, in BLS's order, with employment, annual openings, the May 2025 median wage, typical entry education and BLS's relative AI exposure category.
- Source
- Employment Projections, Table 1.3, with Table 1.2 and the AI exposure categories, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Release
- 2025 to 2035 projections, released August 27, 2026
- Period
- 2025 to 2035 (projections); wages May 2025
- Method
- The occupations and their order are BLS's Table 1.3 (fastest growing occupations). Each is joined by SOC code with its Table 1.2 row (employment, change, openings, wage, typical education) and its BLS AI exposure category. The degree column follows the same grouping as ep-2025-occupations.
- License
- Public domain
- Retrieved
Limits
- Percent growth favors small occupations: a fast-growing occupation can add fewer jobs than a large, slower one.
- Projections are BLS scenarios for 2035 under assumptions about the economy and population, not forecasts of any one employer's hiring; they are revised every year.
- Wages are OEWS May 2025 medians for wage and salary workers. They exclude the self-employed, overtime, shift differentials, bonuses and benefits. BLS publishes no wage for six occupations (actors, dancers, musicians and singers, disc jockeys, other entertainers, and fishing and hunting workers); those cells are empty.
- Typical education is BLS's assignment of the usual entry path, not a legal requirement: many people enter with more or less education (registered nurses are assigned a bachelor's degree although many enter with an associate's degree).
- AI exposure categories are relative and are not forecasts. In BLS's words, "Exposure does not imply job loss, productivity gains, automation probability, or wage effects" and "An exposure category is not a forecast of employment growth or decline." The theoretical measures reflect AI models available by about mid-2023.
- Figures are national only. Employment and openings are in thousands, rounded to the nearest hundred jobs.
Sources & approach
Based on the public sources linked below. Job.com selected and organized the data; no internal company data is used.
- Employment Projections, Table 1.3, with Table 1.2 and the AI exposure categoriesU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · Accessed October 23, 2026
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