10 Fastest Growing Industries In America

Dan Fastenberg
Updated
A new study from Georgetown says the country will add 55 million jobs this decade.
A new study from Georgetown says the country will add 55 million jobs this decade.

For years agriculture and manufacturing have been stalling while service sectors have been adding jobs. And that shift will be "cemented" by 2020, according to Nicole Smith, a senior economist at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Smith is a co-author of a new study that identifies the fastest-growing industries and it projects that the top five will be service industries, such as health care and hospitality.

Using state and national data, the report by Smith, Anthony Carnevale, the center's director, and Jeff Strohl, the center's research director, projects that a total of 55 million new jobs will be created from 2010 to 2020. Twenty-four million of the jobs are expected to be newly created positions. The rest are expected to open as baby boomers retire.

"If the U.S. Congress can deal with budgetary challenges, we are on schedule for recovery," Carnevale said in a news release accompanying the report. The catch, however, is that there may not be enough qualified workers to fill the openings. According to the Georgetown study, 5 million of the total job vacancies will remain open throughout the decade as Americans fail to receive the proper educational and technical training.

Here are the 10 fastest-growing industries:

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