Students planning to enter the computer and health care professions can expect to jump into a white-hot job market for the next few years.
Chester Levine, manager of occupational outlook studies for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, said jobs in those fields are projected to be the fastest-growing occupations for people with a bachelor's degree or higher until 2012.
Jobs for network systems and data communications analysts are expected to increase 57 percent by 2012, according to the bureau.
Jason Eckert, assistant director of the Career Services Center, said careers in computer technology and engineering are also quickly opening for students after graduation.
"We are finally recovering from the four- to five-year dot-com bust," Eckert said. "Future jobs will always be high-tech and will require people with computer skills."
Jobs in software and system design are hot in the job market.
"Because of current trends in the country, technology students are in high demand," he said.
While the outsourcing of computer-related jobs is a very real trend, Eckert said the economy is creating more jobs in the United States than companies are sending overseas.
In addition to technology-related careers, jobs in health care are quickly growing. The number of physician assistants is also expected to increase by 49 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"The population in the United States is getting older because of the baby boomer generation of people 50-plus who need more and more health care," Eckert said. "People are also living longer than they ever have, thus requiring additional services."
Students in nursing, physician's assistant, occupational and physical therapy programs are successful in finding jobs after graduation, according to Eckert. He said openings in health care would be a continuing trend in the foreseeable future.
Careers in teaching are also multiplying as the United States faces a teacher shortage.
Education is a difficult field to attract people to because of the low salaries many school districts offer, Eckert said.
"The country's demographics show larger numbers of people going through high school and college because they are the baby boomers' children—the boomlets," Eckert said. "With more students enrolled there is a greater need for teachers."
William Henk, dean of the School of Education, said many of the teachers in the profession are now eligible for retirement.
"Over the next five to 10 years, their departures will create an unprecedented number of teaching vacancies, and jobs should be plentiful for new teachers entering the workforce," he said.
Business students are continuing to do well in finding jobs after graduation, according to Eckert.
Occupations that will see the largest decline include textile workers, farmers, fishers and telephone operators, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Eckert advised junior and senior students to start their job search early because many employers want to make job offerings during the fall semester.
"A lot of students do not think about the next step until it's almost too late," he said. "How great would it be if you could go home at Christmas break and have at least one job offer? You'd have a pretty stress-free second semester senior year."
The Career Services Center on campus offers various open houses throughout the year and hosts an average of 100 different organizations and employers that hold on-campus interviews with students, Eckert said.
Career counselors are available to look over resumes and help students set up interviews with prospective employers.
This article was published in The Marquette Tribune on September 27, 2005.