Job Growth is Expanding Into High-Paying Jobs

The economic recovery of the United States is encouraging a far more open and demanding job market after several years of high unemployment rates, including increased availability of the high-paying jobs that can be tough to get even in a good economy. Most of these jobs still require degrees or some form of higher education, but over 257,000 high-paying jobs have become available since June, 2014.

As employers begin to gain confidence in the economy's stability, more jobs are becoming available in high-wage sectors such as manufacturing, business services and construction. In fact, sectors like these added more jobs than low wage sectors like fast food over recent months. Data collected by global financial services company UBS indicates that high-paying sectors added more jobs than low-wage industries, which only added 210,000 positions in the same period.

In 2013, many economists and laborers were concerned by low job availability and payroll advances being higher in low wage sectors than in high wage. However, in 2014, employers and jobseekers have seen over 200,000 jobs become available each month.

The importance of high-paying jobs boils down to the ways they affect the economy. An increase in high-paying jobs means that average pay increases as companies endeavor to keep their employees from joining high-paying competitors, and with higher pay generally comes more spending. The money high-earning employees bring in comes full circle through shopping, rent, mortgages and overall increased spending.

However, jobseekers who are looking to take advantage of this increase in high-paying jobs should be aware that most of them still require at least an undergraduate degree. While this is fortunate for jobseekers with appropriate qualifications who may have been laid off as the recession hit, high-paying sectors such as technology will generally be looking only for already educated workers. Sectors such as manufacturing and construction may not require jobseekers to have as much higher education, however.

Jobseekers who want to earn degrees without spending too much on tuition can investigate online degrees from universities such as the University of the People, which allows students with a high school diploma or GED to enroll in classes online for free. These classes build towards an accredited bachelor’s degree in computer science or business administration at minimal cost to the student. Jobseekers may also be eligible for certain scholarships in their area if they want to earn their degrees at lower cost.

Low-wage jobs may be necessary to lead a country out of recession, but high-paying jobs are never far behind as the economy recovers. High-paying companies generally also have sufficient revenue to invest in additional services, such as accounting, that create even more jobs in other high-paying sectors for jobseekers who specialize in business services.

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