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THE DECADE AHEAD:
Where Job Growth Will Be in 2018

Reported January 22, 2010 by Fast Company

As part of a series looking at employment trends for the coming decade, NPR has created an interactive chart summarizing their findings:

You've got to click here to go to the actual graph to see the data, but once you do, the message is clear: White-collar service jobs will be huge. The fastest growing sectors there will be computer systems design and technical consulting, at 43% and 81% respectively.

But the most troubling facet of the graph is the growth in health care, where jobs will expand by 19%. (As the Congressional Budget Office has shown, health care will become 25% of the GDP by 2025 if current growth rates persist.) Why is that troubling? Well consider the resources and education going towards simply taking care of our health--rather than building the U.S.'s global competitiveness in areas such as professional services or science. It's hard to believe that the U.S. will continue to grow its profile as a leading economy with so many resources pointed internally.

And that points to one of the most difficult things about health care reform: The effects of the current bills before Congress and the Senate have been sold variously as an ethical mandate to provide health care to all and a cost-saving measure aimed at curbing growth that will eventually cripple the economy. The former is an easier sell to the public (even though it appears to be failing). But the latter is vitally important to the U.S.'s future economic prospects.

 

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