Futurism is a tricky business. The future of jobs — a field of study relevant to anyone hoping to put food on their table — is one of the more popular areas of speculation.
According to one study, 65 percent of preteens entering elementary school now will wind up working in jobs that don’t exist yet. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts job growth across the next decade will be more significant than the past decade, hitting 11.5 million jobs by 2026. So just what will the future jobscape look like?
LinkedIn’s 2017 U.S. Emerging Jobs Report takes a look at the future of the job market, relying on data from millions of members to figure out stats on which career paths are on the rise or on the downswing, as well as a compelling look at the potential impact of jobs that don’t even exist yet.
Tech Jobs on the Rise
The positions with the most potential growth are in the tech industry, whether the companies hiring are tech-oriented or not.
“Machine learning engineer, data scientist, and big data engineers rank among the top emerging jobs,” the report notes, “with companies in a wide range of industries seeking those skills.”
This lines up with the opinion of job search company Indeed, which last February put that growth potential at around one million openings across the next five years.
And So Are Soft Skills
But if you don’t have hard tech skills, you’re not out of luck when skimming the list of emerging jobs.
“Sales development representative, customer success manager, and brand partner rank among the top emerging jobs at companies where a technical background is not a necessity. Traditional soft skills like communication and management underpin all of these emerging jobs,” LinkedIn says.
The Top 20
LinkedIn shared a chart of the top 20 emerging jobs, too. 
Expect More Mobility
A high location mobility is a factor for “several” emerging jobs on the list, alongside societal trends including wellness and flexibility: Barre instructors are on the rise, and licensed realtors are doing great, having “surged 40 percent” in the past year alone.
Future-Proofing Is a Concern
We already knew cyber security experts had it rough given the rapid clip that security measures are evolving at, but plenty of other professionals are having a hard time staying up to date on their professed skill sets.
“Some of these emerging skills didn’t even exist five years ago, and many professionals are not confident their current skill set will be relevant within the next 1-2 years,” the report found.
Bonus: New Skills to Know
Speaking of stay on top of the biggest new skills, data from Indeed has given us the latest new emerging tech skills that could help you get an edge on your competition in your next job search. The data’s above, pulled from this article on the topic. And if learning a new JavaScript library sounds like a little much for you, no worries: Just look into getting that realtor’s license.
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