Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Fastest-growing jobs pay about $22K a year
The largest two categories of America’s fastestgrowing jobs offer some of the country’s lowest wages and weakest benefits.
In the next 10 years, analysts expect to see 1.2 million more jobs for home health and personal care aides, according to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s more than the projected job creation in the eight other most rapidly growing fields combined.
By 2026, the home health aide industry will add 425,600 positions, an increase of 46.7 percent, the government estimates show. The occupation’s median annual wage today is $22,600.
The number of personal care aides, who handle mostly domestic tasks is expected to climb by 754,000 jobs or 37.6 percent. They typically make about $21,000 per year.
Solar and wind jobs, which come with larger paychecks, are projected to grow by 105 percent and 96 percent, respectively, but the tiny fields will add just 17,400 positions in the next decade, researchers predict.
Nine in 10 caretaker positions are held by women. Nearly half identify as black or Hispanic.
Workers in these roles share one central mission: They care for people who struggle to care for themselves. But many live in poverty, and most have little to no paid days off.
“They’re typically the breadwinners in low-income households,” said Ariane Hegewisch, a labor economist at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research who co-wrote a study last year about lowwage jobs filled by women.
“But what they earn makes it hard for them to pay the rent, or get an education to move into better paying jobs, or look after their children.”
Fifty-five percent of home health aides subsist on incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty line, her research found.