What Jobs Will Emerge from the Stimulus?

While the government recently reported that the current unemployment rate is around 9.5%, the Obama administration is still pushing for new job creation and job growth. (CBSNews.com) Rather than discussing the state of unemployment, we’ll take a look at the future and what industries and jobs might benefit from the eventual economic recovery. The Obama administration has earmarked certain funding for new and developing industries, however it appears as if many new jobs could be created in existing industries as well.

Green Jobs

In February, CNN predicted that the Obama Stimulus plan would include $30 billion for energy-related projects that would create green jobs. (CNN.com) The Digital Journal reported that as of May, nearly 150,000 green jobs had been created, including “jobs building solar panels and wind turbines, making homes and buildings more energy efficient.” (DigitalJournal.com)

In a recent blog post from former Vice President Al Gore, he cites the Center for American Progress in saying, “Spending $100 billion within the domestic oil industry would create only about 542,000 jobs in the United States. A green infrastructure investment program would create nearly four times more jobs than spending the same amount of money on oil energy resources.” (www.AlGore.com) What specific jobs could be created? According to the Simply Hired Blog, “Five areas with significant expected job growth are Building Retrofitting, Mass Transit, Energy-Efficient Automobiles, Wind Power, Solar Power and Cellulosic Biofuels.” (blog.simplyhired.com) Their website also offers a detailed list with descriptions of several green jobs of the future.

Other Growth Fields

A January Forbes article cited a report from career website JobFox that analyzed Obama’s plan in order to predict which industries would benefit the most. Among the growth industries they picked were engineering, accounting, nursing and information technology. (Forbes on MSNBC.com) Beyond these industries, JobFox outlined a few other industries that could benefit:

• Construction – “One initiative Obama has discussed repeatedly is the “rebuilding of our crumbling roads, bridges and schools.” Likely positions that will come out of that effort include construction manager, project manager, civil engineer, computer-aided drafting specialist and telecommunications engineer”
• Healthcare – “Modernization of the health care system will be another major initiative, with a primary focus on getting paper medical records into centralized electronic files.”
• Finance – “The subprime mortgage crisis revealed the excessive risks many companies had been taking for years. Obama is calling for greater oversight of the markets, and with that comes a need for compliance accountants, internal auditors, tax accountants and government regulators — jobs for many people laid off from Wall Street, perhaps.”
  Source: JobFox, MSNBC.com & Forbes

Listen: Laurence Shatkin, Ph.D., and author of Great Jobs in the President’s Stimulus Plan discusses which  jobs will experience growth due to the President’s economic stimulus package. (click below to listen)

Sources: CBSNews.com, CNN.com, DigitalJournal.com, AlGore.com, Simply Hired blog, Forbes, MSNBC.com, JobFox