The Future of Unconventional Jobs

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With the economy now on a wild roller-coaster ride, with career paths taking sharp turns and sudden frightening drops, a lot of people are nervous—very nervous. What will happen to your job? How do you choose a profession that won't disappear in five years? The conventional wisdom, reinforced daily by the business press, is to scramble any way you can to a field with a future: software engineering, say, or global marketing. Otherwise, you may end up the 21st century equivalent of a blacksmith—trained to do a job that hardly anyone needs.

But a detailed look at the job prospects of tomorrow offers a more complicated and yet hopeful picture for people seeking an alternative to the typical lists of "hot jobs." Take a look at the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Outlook Handbook, which forecasts 50 million new jobs opening up by the year 2006, a net increase of 14 percent over 1996. Surely, there's something in there for you. It's easy to get lost in the bureau's minutiae and the wacky job titles (head sawyers, down 10 percent; shampooers, up 7 percent). But if you look long enough, patterns begin to emerge. The job outlook is bleak for people who do not acquire specialized skills (farmworkers, down 9 percent) or cannot adapt to technological change (telephone operators, down 9 percent). But it's much brighter for folks seeking something other than life as a computer jockey or corporate honcho. If you can heal people, resolve conflicts, or tell a good story, for instance, a good job is probably waiting.

Healing
These may account for 14 of the 30 fastest-growing jobs in the next decade. The 77 million baby boomers, now ages 36 to 53, are enduring an increasing burden of minor aches and chronic conditions, and their woes will create millions of new jobs for healers. As aging boomers search for relief, they will look beyond traditional Western medicine. The number of nationally certified massage therapists in the United States has quadrupled since 1990, according to the American Massage Therapy Association. The need for healing also will go beyond easing physical pain. Depression and major life changes become more prevalent in middle age, which is why the number of counseling therapists is projected to increase dramatically. And even the most well-adjusted 50-year-olds find themselves paying more attention to spiritual matters once a parent or close friend dies. The number of jobs for directors of religious activities and education in churches and temples may increase 36 percent. In all, over 100,000 new jobs for clergy and religious directors are expected between 1996 and 2006.

Peacemakers
The government expects the number of lawyers to increase 19 percent in the next decade, while the number of judges may increase only 2 percent. The result will be worsening gridlock in the courts. At the same time, the demand for simpler, more humane ways of resolving disputes will increase for another reason. A pioneer generation of college-educated women joined the labor force in the 1970s and 1980s and is finally entering the ranks of top management. As managers, women are more likely than men to talk through conflicts instead of reaching for a hired gun.

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