9 new skills that boost pay the most

Updated
Sharpening Your Job Interview Skills
Sharpening Your Job Interview Skills



Some of today's most in-demand skills are tech-related – no surprise to anyone who's been in the work world in the past 10 or 15 years, or read any career news, or even followed politics. STEM jobs are often high-paying jobs, and the skills that support them can level up your earnings faster than other additions to your resume. PayScale's recent report, How to Win in the Skills Economy, looks at nine new skills that could make you big money. And when we say "new," we mean "brand-new": all of the skills on this list have emerged in the last five years.

code
code

(Photo Credit: Thomas Lefebvre/Unsplash)

1. Scala: Like Java, Scala is an object-oriented programming language; unlike Java, it offers features of functional programming languages. Scala developers are in high demand, according to Indeed.

Pay Boost: 22.2 percent

2. Go: An open-source programming language, Go (or Golang) was created at Google in 2007. It's used in production systems at Google and other companies.

Pay Boost: 20 percent

3. Hadoop: Apache Hadoop is Java-based programming framework. Its creator, Doug Cutting, named it after his child's stuffed elephant.

Pay Boost: 12.5 percent

4. iOS SDK: If you have an iPhone, you've used the products of iOS SDK, which is the software development kit that allows users to create mobile apps for iOS.

Pay Boost: 11.4 percent

RELATED: The best jobs for tech lovers

5. Big Data Analytics: IDC predicts that the big data market will grow to $187 billion by 2019; you can get in on that action as a data scientist, data analyst, or software engineer.

Pay Boost: 10.7 percent

6. Cloud Computing: Cloud computing makes it easier for companies to scale up (or back) their computing needs, and pay only for what they use. In 2014, according to Forbes, there were nearly 400,000 cloud computing-related IT jobs in the United States.

Pay Boost: 10.4 percent

7. Android SDK: To build apps for the Android platform, you need to be able to use these development tools, which are often used with an integrated development environment.

Pay Boost: 9.3 percent

8. Selenium Automated Test Tool: Selenium is a set of open-source testing tools for web applications that works with most browsers.

Pay Boost: 6.7 percent

9. Groovy: An object-oriented programming language, Groovy can be used to write applications and extend Java applications.

Pay Boost: 6.2 percent

Want to find out how much your skills are worth? Take PayScale's free Salary Survey.

Tell Us What You Think

What's the most valuable skill you've learned so far? We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or join the discussion on Twitter.

More from PayScale
Thinking about quitting your job? Ask yourself these 5 questions first
These 5 jobs only require a two-year degree and are perfect for a mid-career change
The 5 best and worst states for nurses

Advertisement