Monday, October 10, 2011

Unemployment and potential areas for growth

For a substantial increase in GDP we agree that we need increased consumer spending and for increasing consumer spending we need to put money in people’s pockets and for that we need folks to get jobs.
This train of thoughts led me to see which occupational areas are promising and see a potential growth and here is what I pulled from a couple of sites
Unemployment statistics
• Number of unemployed = 14 million
• % Unemployed Present = 9.1
• Long term unemployed (27 weeks and over)= 6 million
• % Long term unemployed = 49.2 % of Unemployed
• % Unemployed Jan 08 = 5 %
From the U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics the fastest growing occupations from the year 2008 and projected to year 2018
I have shortlisted this list only for folks with Moderate to Short-term on-the-job training (the reason being we cannot send masses to a 4 year degree and short to moderate on the job training would be practical way forward).
Here are the areas of occupation and % increase we see majority of jobs being created in the Healthcare sector so in case we focus on this area more than other areas we can see a substantial growth in job market
• Home health aides 50%
• Personal and home care aides 47%
• Physical therapist aides 36%
• Medical assistants 33%
• Physical therapist assistants 30%
• Occupational therapist aides 30%

Source of my data : http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_table_103.htm