The Coming Job Boom

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A Healthy Prognosis
If lately you have had to wait to fill a prescription or get your doctor on the phone, you know why no industry holds more promise than health care.

--CAREGIVERS Nurses and pharmacists aren't the only ones being snapped up by hospitals. All across the country, sonogram operators, who make a median salary of $42,000, and radiology technicians are being hired. The people who help patients get back on their feet are also hot properties. Over the next decade, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there will be 255,000 openings for all manner of therapists, including physical and respiratory therapists and speech pathologists.

--DRUGMAKERS Firms that dream up wonder drugs are in one of the few industries that have continued to hire in droves. Swiss-based Novartis AG, which has embarked on a major expansion in the U.S., hired more than 1,800 workers last year and plans to keep hiring at a brisk pace. That includes everyone from marketing and manufacturing staff to people in finance, human resources and, of course, research science. This array of jobs pays anywhere from $30,000 to $300,000 a year. Likewise, Abbott Laboratories hopes to fill 5,000 new positions this year, including posts for sales reps who can drive product launches.

--GENE HUNTERS The much hyped biotech industry is finally starting to deliver on its promise, with more small companies shifting from basic research to drug development. That means more jobs, from lab work to medical writing, are in the pipeline as well. Genentech, based in South San Francisco, Calif., is increasing its head count each year by 297, or about 6% annually, hiring everyone from Ph.D.s to community-college grads who can work in manufacturing. Just in the budding field of bioinformatics, in which specialists can make more than $100,000 a year using computers to plow through reams of genetic data, there will be an estimated 20,000 unfilled jobs by 2005. Chemists are also being wooed across industries.

Uncle Sam Wants You
Long before Sept. 11 ushered in a new era of respect for government, Washington was poised to enjoy an unlikely job boom. Almost half the Federal Government's 1.8 million workers will be eligible to retire within five years. From the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Park Service to the Commerce, Energy and State departments, agencies are bracing for a brain drain, especially at the managerial level. And these aren't your classic paper-pushing jobs--although many of those, as at the busy Social Security Administration, are also going begging.

--LAW ENFORCEMENT Organizations--from the FBI and the CIA to the Coast Guard and the Defense, Justice and State departments--are revving up their recruiting efforts, looking for everyone from computer programmers, budding young diplomats and spooks to lawyers and linguists. The Immigration and Naturalization Service wants to hire thousands of new border-patrol guards and immigration inspectors to process and keep better track of new arrivals to the country; these positions require just a high school diploma and, with overtime, can pay around $40,000 in the first year.

--BIG THINKERS To help assess the growing tide of innovations that washes across its desks, the Patent and Trademark Office is desperate to find more qualified engineers and intellectual-property lawyers. Other high-end specialists are needed, such as drug reviewers at the FDA; accountants and statisticians at the Labor and Treasury departments, the Internal Revenue Service and the Securities and Exchange Commission; and trade experts at Commerce.

Get Your Hands Dirty
In the dotcom mania of the '90s, it was easy to forget that skilled tradespeople can make good money.

--CONSTRUCTION A recent industry study showed that at least one-third of St. Louis' 80,000 construction workers are expected to retire in the next five years--a microcosm of the situation nationwide; the industry needs to attract 240,000 new workers each year, from project managers to iron workers, just to compensate for the exodus. The top tradespeople in their fields, such as plumbers, electricians, carpenters, bricklayers, roofers and painters, can make upward of $100,000 a year.

--MANUFACTURING Even in this beleaguered sector, in which many firms have made huge layoffs, companies are having a hard time finding the right people. More than 80% of firms say they face a shortage of qualified machinists, craft workers and technicians, according to a recent survey by the National Association of Manufacturers. That deficit is likely to widen. Although manufacturing will not grow much overall during the next decade, a rapidly aging work force will create more than 2 million job openings--with many positions paying more than $50,000--for welders, tool- and diemakers, line managers and others.