The 10 Toughest Jobs To Fill In 2016

With the explosion of big data and the need to track it, employers keep on hiring data scientists. But qualified candidates are in short supply. The field is so new, the Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t even track it as a profession. Yet thousands of companies, from startups that analyze credit card data in order to target marketing and advertising campaigns, to giant corporations like Ford Motor and Price WaterhouseCoopers, are bringing on scores of people who can take gigantic data sets and wrestle them into usable information. As an April report from technology market research firm Forrester put it, “Businesses are drowning in data but starving for insights.” 

The pressing need for data scientists landed the job in a new report on the 10 toughest jobs to fill in 2016, released by the Society of Human Resource Management in collaboration with CareerCast, a Carlsbad, CA company that releases a yearly “Jobs Rated Report,” where it evaluates 200 professions using BLS and other government sources, and trade association and private survey firms data. It also spot-checks some of its findings with people who work in various fields. 

The list includes another two technology jobs, information security analyst and software engineer, and four health care-related jobs: home health aide, medical services manager, physical therapist and registered nurse. The combination of Baby Boomers retiring from fields like nursing, while at the same time needing more care as they age, contributes to the demand in the health care professions. The Affordable Care Act also makes it possible for previously uninsured people to get the care they need, further increasing demand.

To put together the list, Kyle Kensing, CareerCast’s online content editor, used the Jobs Rated Report, focusing on 110 jobs that have hiring outlooks of more than 10% according to the BLS, and large numbers of people already working in the fields, anticipating that many will be retiring soon. He also tapped trade associations like the American Physical Therapy Association and he interviewed people in the 10 professions on the list.

For the complete list of the 10 professions, see our slideshow above or read the report here. The list is unranked; the jobs are in alphabetical order.

See also: The Best Jobs For 2015

See also: The Worst Jobs For 2015