The U.S. Department of Labor published a table showing the fastest growing occupations for the years 2004-2014.

I thought it was pretty interesting that out of the thirty job areas they listed, 1/3 of most are IT related and all are located in the top half of the list. Most of the others are related to healthcare in some way (give or take the occasional teaching category or niche-y field like Hazardous materials removal).

The IT specialty where they predict the most growth is the Network systems and data communications analyst. The number of these analysts was 231,000 in 2004, but it is expected to reach 357,000 by 2014. The next IT specialty to see the most growth is Computer software engineer/applications, which is expected to experience a 48.4% increase to 682 practioners in the year 2014.

Other areas listed are:

  • Computer software engineer/systems software
  • Network and computer systems administrators
  • Database administrators/Computer systems
  • Computer systems analysts