For those graduating college this year, job prospects are better than they’ve been in a long time. This year’s grads have the highest employment rate this millennium and recruiting by employers has growth by 16% following years of single-digit growth. With the abundance of well-paying gigs, students finally have options when it comes to their future career. They don’t just have to settle for moving back home and taking whatever office gig they can find.
For prospective students or those looking at grad school, choosing a career can be a tricky decision. Read below to see what industries and careers are flourishing. Also consider having a look at the Occupational Outlook Handbook , a 10-year employment forecast released every two years by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics . (For more, see: The College Degrees You Should Have Gotten .)
Highest Paying Jobs
Overall the highest paying jobs still belong to the medical profession. More than 10 out of the top highest earning careers belong to various doctors and surgeons — all making more than $169,000. The highest salaries go to oral surgeons, other doctors and surgeons, surgeons, ob/gyns and internists. Anesthesiologists, orthodontists, psychiatrists, family doctors and prosthodontists make up the other top fields.
If medicine isn’t your cup of tea, you should consider petroleum engineering, architectural and engineering managers, air traffic controllers and computer and information systems managers. These are all careers with a lower barrier to entry, and comparable earning potential to the medical industry. (For more, see: Top 8 Most Profitable Majors of 2015.)
Best Growth
If you’re interested in finding what jobs make the most immediately, you don’t have to be a doctor. But you may have to be in the medical field. Nurse practitioners have a 29% job growth rate, according to Economic Modeling Specialists International, partly due to the aging baby boomer population and the enactment of the
Affordable Care Act. Physical therapists, medical sonographers, registered nurses and health services managers round out the other healthcare fields that are hiring in droves.
If blood tests and flu shots aren’t your thing, you can still find high-paying jobs with good growth. Information security analysts, app developers and computer systems analyst are IT-related fields that provide solid growth, great starting salaries and stability. (See related: What Education Do You Need to Become a Billionaire? )
Best Entry Level Jobs
Jobs with the best entry level pay are almost entirely in the financial sector and IT field. The career with the highest median entry-level salary is associate investment banker at $76,000. Other top jobs include user experience designer, front end developer, biomedical engineer, forensic accountant, clinical research associate, SalesForce.com administrator, web analyst, energy analyst and product marketing specialist.
If you’re tech-savvy, a gig in one of these fields may be a perfect fit. If you’re simply looking for a change, consider that many of these careers don’t require advanced degrees and may not require years of experience before reaching six figures in salary.