American Jobs Of The Future

I'm posting this because my daughter is about to embark on an arduous seven year journey to become a full-fledged physical therapist. It's going to take a significant chunk of change to pay for her education, so naturally she was a little apprehensive as to whether she could pay for her education after college. (Actually, she had no clue about how much it was going to cost and whether she could make enough money in her chosen profession to pay for her education. I, being an accounting guy with a special liking to spreadsheets, made her aware of the cost and her ability to pay after college.)

From Growthology:

In my years of research on this topic, a one must-read piece stands out: the 2003 annual report of the Dallas Fed. This 1800-2000 time series chart of the percentage of the American workforce in 3 sectors is worth at least two thousand words:

Material production is becoming so automated that service consumption is the key to understanding future employment in terms of service production. So if you really think that everyone in the future will be flipping burgers, then you also have to believe that everyone will be consuming nothing other than burgers.

The trends show that major increases in consumption will be in health care, education, entertainment, art, and even the movies. And that's where the jobs of the future will be: health care, education, entertainment. More pro sports, more physical therapy, more nurturing of younger and younger children, more training, more video games.

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So, if she makes it the full seven years my little peanut should have no problems. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics physical therapists are starting out at $67,000 annually and that's enough to pay for college and actually have a life. She is, however, required to give her dad free leg rub downs after marathons. That's just part of the deal.

One side note: For those who think the manufacturing jobs were "shipped" overseas, that's not the case at all. America as a nation reached its peak production in 2007 while at the same time losing over 20% of its manufacturing jobs since 2001. Clearly America got more efficient in manufacturing.