Job growth in the United States has been strong in 2023, with the American economy adding 336,000 jobs in September. Workers seeking jobs in the hospitality industry were among the big beneficiaries, with customers returning to hotels and restaurants in a big way, post-pandemic. In fact, in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that bars and restaurants accounted for 61,000 new jobs during the month.
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But that doesn’t mean all is rosy on the job front. Due largely to the rise of further automation, consumers and businesses worldwide can now rely on technology to complete some business tasks instead of humans. The areas where people – not machines – must do the job still exist, namely in specialized skills, such as nursing, plumbing and driving heavy trucks.
In its Future of Jobs Report 2023, the World Economic Forum outlined the job classifications that are currently growing and compared them to industries that are declining across the world.
Some traditional jobs – positions that our parents and grandparents long filled – are reckoning with a steep decline in availability, according to the BLS. While these employers still will have jobs to fill because of factors such as retirement, positions will be harder to come by. If you want a profession with growth potential galore, the World Economic Forum and BLS statistics show jobs are disappearing the fastest in 2023 for professionals in these six fields.
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Bank Tellers
Think about the last time you went into a bank to conduct a routine transaction, such as to deposit a check into your account. It probably was a while ago. The ability to snap a photo via cell phone and deposit it instantly via an app has reduced the need for tellers.
The rise of online-only accounts also takes tellers out of the picture, as does the creation of enhanced ATMs that can perform many of the tasks tellers traditionally have done. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the number of teller jobs in the United States will fall by 52,900, or 15%, from 2022 to 2032.
Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
Medical secretaries will be in demand in the coming decade, not secretaries and administrative assistants in other occupations. The BLS predicts the total number of positions in those fields will fall by about 10%, or 332,600 posts, in the 10-year span. The decline has been spurred by the advent of technology that allows bosses and other staff to prepare their documents and perform tasks previously completed by secretaries and administrative assistants.
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Cashiers
It wasn’t that long ago that when you went to pay for your groceries, you’d have your choice of 10 checkout lanes with a friendly employee behind the cash register to scan and bag your items. Now, the number of lanes has dropped, replaced by self-checkout registers in many supermarkets, home improvement stores and big-box locations.
The BLS estimates a loss of 10% of the workforce in the cashier sector between 2022 and 2032, a massive drop of 348,100 people. That declining number also accounts for more people shopping online instead of in brick-and-mortar locations.
Postal Service Workers
Technology has improved mail sorting, reducing the time it takes to move mail from drop-off to destination. With the process of sorting mail, simplified carriers will have less to do on the back end before delivering your mail and can increase the number of addresses on their routes. More routes mean fewer carriers on the road.
Americans just aren’t sending as much mail anymore, either. Since more people than ever pay their bills online and send emails instead of letters, mail volume has dropped drastically. In 2000, about 103.5 billion pieces of first-class mail were delivered. In 2022, that number fell to 49.5 billion, according to U.S. Postal Service records.
As a result, the number of jobs is expected to drop by 8%, or 39,000, between 2022 and 2032, the BLS projects.
Bookkeeping, Accounting and Auditing Clerks
The total of employees filling jobs as bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks is expected to fall by 6% from 2022 to 2032, per the BLS. Why? It’s because new software has automated many tasks once done manually, dropping the need for employees in this job classification.
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Information Clerks
According to the BLS occupational handbook, the wide-ranging category of information clerks includes workers at hotel and motel desks, reservation ticket agents, file clerks and records clerks. While local governments still rely on information clerks for things like issuing permits, the need has fallen in other businesses and industries. The BLS expects positions as information clerks to fall by about 4% over the 10-year span, a loss of 54,000 jobs.
Jobs Growing in Popularity
These six jobs are dwindling, but what jobs are trending up? Based on the World Economic Forum study, they fall in the areas where technology, digitalization and sustainability are key. As a result, the group pegged these as the fastest-growing careers:
- Specialists in artificial intelligence and machine learning
- Sustainability specialists, business intelligence analysts
- Information security analysts
- Renewable energy engineers
- Solar energy installation and system engineers
