Report: High-Wage Jobs Expected to See Higher Growth Than Low Wage

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CareerBuilder and Economic Modeling Specialists (EMSI) released a new report projecting the fastest-growing occupations and metro areas from 2013 to 2017. It includes a detailed analysis on projected growth by wage group and education requirements:

Key findings:

The U.S. workforce is projected to grow at a faster rate than the 2009-2013 period, but will still trail pre-recession growth. The strongest projected growth is often found in occupations related to health care, energy and information technology.
At 5%, high-wage occupations are expected to grow faster than low-wage and middle-wage occupations.
75% of the 165 occupations expected to lose jobs nationally are in the middle-wage category.
Occupations requiring college degrees are expected to grow significantly faster than those that do not. For example, associate degree and master’s degree occupations are each projected to grow 8 percent while jobs requiring short-term, on-the-job training trail at 4 percent.
23 of the 52 largest metro areas will outpace the projected national rate of job growth.

Other employment findings:

11 million people are unemployed in the U.S. today, but 45% of HR managers can’t find qualified candidates for their open positions.
8 in 10 employers are concerned about the growing skills gap, but only 4 in 10 are doing something about it..
1 in 4 companies have lost revenue due to extended job vacancies
Nearly half of U.S. companies spend less than $68 per day on training employees
Retaining talent is critical. A 10% increase in customer service workers who stay with a firm at least five years is associated with $16 million dollars in value added.