Author: Liz Frome
Want to know what job fields are hiring for 2021?
In a shift from recent years that have seen tech jobs as one of the most prominent fields for opportunity, the past year showed the rise of human-centric roles to cater to new and urgent needs brought on by the pandemic. Over 15,000 job titles were tracked in 2020 and compared to the job titles for 2019.
Covid job trends: Health care, living online, calls for diversity
Frontline workers in the e-commerce space, ranging from warehouse workers to delivery drivers to gig workers tasked with personal shopping, were identified as the No. 1 emerging job trend of the year, thanks to a year dominated by shelter-in-place advisories and ongoing social-distancing practices. Hiring for these roles grew 73% according to LinkedIn research study. They estimate that there are over 400,000 job openings in this field currently.
Meanwhile, loan and mortgage experts were also a top emerging job in 2020, following both the rollout of the Paycheck Protection Program loans, as well as increased mortgage demand during the pandemic-fueled homebuying boom.
Several health-care positions are recognized throughout the list, including nurses, health-care supporting staff (who handle processing and administrative tasks for hospitals and care centers) and mental health specialists are seeing skyrocketing demand. The pandemic has both exacerbated mental health trauma while, in some ways, removing barriers to access as providers have moved online.
Elsewhere, as other organizations moved online, they had greater need for workers in business development, sales, digital marketing and user experience to ensure their operations could continue in a new space. Hiring for data scientists and artificial intelligence experts remained strong.
Following a year of racial justice protests and calls for accountability, many companies are beginning to do the work of addressing systemic racism within their corporate practices. As a result, hiring for experts in workplace diversity increased by 90% compared with 2019, and many expect the corporate push to continue.
While early migration data suggests people are leaving crowded cities for more space beyond metro areas, the majority of open jobs continue to be found in top cities including New York; San Francisco; Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; and Chicago. Large populations still need services.
There is a huge movement of skills all around the country with remote work and it has increased more than 4.5 times over the last year. As remote work and learning have persisted, we’ve seen a continued rise in demand for specialized engineers, particularly for tools and products that help us communicate and stay connected, as well as for education experts.
What hiring will look like in 2021 and beyond
Hiring trends in the last year will dictate where opportunities are in 2021, and job seekers can take a look at ongoing patterns to position themselves for a new role.
The key is to pay attention to the types of skills employers are looking for today in building their workforce and businesses of tomorrow: The prediction is over the next 5 years we will see 150 million more technology related jobs, so demand for digital skills is very much on the rise.
Top skills posted on LinkedIn:
The top in-demand technical skills posted on LinkedIn include:
Web development; video editing; SEO; UX testing; statistical modeling and data visualization; Amazon Web Services; and Python.
The top soft skills:
Customer service, team building, leadership, community outreach and time management, are also high on employers’ priority list.
According to the research from LinkedIn the biggest job opportunities of 2021 are:
1. Frontline e-commerce workers
Top job titles: Personal shopper, fulfillment specialist, delivery driver
Hiring growth since 2019: Up by 73%
Salary range: $42,000 to $56,000
2. Loan and mortgage experts
Top job titles: Loan coordinator, mortgage consultant, underwriter
Hiring growth since 2019: Up by 59%
Median salary: $43,700 to $60,000
3. Health-care supporting staff
Top job titles: Intake specialist, health coach, pharmacy technician
Hiring growth since 2019: Up by 34%
Median salary: $65,300 to $106,000
4. Business development and sales professionals
Top job titles: Sales consultants, sales operations assistant, strategic advisor
Hiring growth since 2019: Up by 45%
Median salary: $43,300 to $105,000
5. Workplace diversity experts
Top job titles: Diversity coordinator, inclusion aide, diversity officer
Hiring growth since 2019: Up by 90%
Median salary: $72,900 to $97,000
6. Digital marketing professionals
Top job titles: Growth hacker, social media manager, search engine optimization specialist
Hiring growth since 2019: Up by 33%
Median salary: $48,000 to $96,000
7. Nurses
Top job titles: School nurse, certified nursing assistant, nursing manager
Hiring growth since 2019: Up by 30%
Median salary: $73,000 to $111,000
8. Education professionals
Top job titles: Youth worker, teaching assistant, education consultant
Hiring growth since 2019: Up by 20%
Median salary: $46,500 to $63,200
9. Digital content creators
Top job titles: Podcaster, blogger, Youtuber
Hiring growth since 2019: Up by 49%
Median salary: $46,000 to $62,400
10. Personal and career coaches
Top job titles: Life coach, career coordinator, business coach
Hiring growth since 2019: Up by 51%
Median salary: $44,300 to $50,000
11. Specialized engineers
Top job titles: Game developer, software engineering specialist, customer engineer
Hiring growth since 2019: Up by 25%
Median salary: $77,500 to $104,000
12. Mental health specialists
Top job titles: Behavior therapist, mental health technician, psychotherapist
Hiring growth since 2019: Up by 24%
Median salary: $41,600 to $65,000
13. User experience professionals
Top job titles: User experience design specialist, product design consultant, user interface designer
Hiring growth since 2019: Up by 20%
Median salary: $80,000 to $103,000
14. Data scientists
Top job titles: Data scientist, data science specialists, data management analyst
Hiring growth since 2019: Up by 46%
Median salary: $100,000 to $130,000
15. Artificial intelligence engineers
Top job title: Machine learning engineer, artificial intelligence specialist, machine learning researcher
Hiring growth since 2019: Up by 32%
Median salary: $124,000 to $150,000
“Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” —Babe Ruth
Stay tuned for more job tips.
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