Yahoo Finance Hottest jobs in 2018
Many of the trends that hit the US eventually make it to the shores Down Under.
Jobs are no different, and this is reflected in PayScale’s list of the 30 fastest-growing jobs this year.
More than half of the fastest-growing jobs require technological skills. Full stack software developers took the top place, with a 572 percent increase in respondents compared to 2017.
Full-stack developers have an understanding of both the ‘front end’ and the ‘back end’ of web development. While they’ve been accused of being ‘jack of all trades and masters of none’, these tech wizards are highly valued by companies for their knowledge of all ‘layers’ – or ‘stacks’ – of an application, making for a more cohesive and efficient team.
Interestingly, “director of community engagement” took the second spot, with this role experiencing 294 per cent growth this year.
“Social media roles continue to grow in importance across industries as brands fight for consumer attention,” said PayScale director of research Sudarshan Sampath.
“2018 also saw marked job growth for non-engineering roles in the tech industry, as well as tech-adjacent roles such as digital marketers.”
As a result, those with community engagement, design, marketing or social media skills were also highly sought after as brands vied for consumers’ attention.
“We also saw a 234 percent increase in lead graphic designers, reflecting organisations’ increasing demand for marketing assets,” Sampath added.
“Because both of these roles are so critical to an organisation’s success in 2018, it is unsurprising to see jobs in this field growing rapidly.”
Looking to 2019
As all industries continue to be shaped by new technologies, the growth of tech jobs show no signs of abating. PayScale has earmarked cloud computing, artificial intelligence, big data, cyber security, visual/augmented reality, digital marketing, and marijuana as areas of growth for the coming year.
AI software engineers, cloud computing software developers and data scientists can look forward to higher pay packets or lucrative opportunities in 2019, Sampath noted.
It’s also good news for cyber security analysts. “The collection of vast quantities of data increases the risk and cost of cyber security threats. The ongoing stream of massive data breaches has shaken consumer confidence and increases the threat of government regulation in the tech space,” he said.
As a result, many companies will be aiming to be proactive in this regard and shore up their cyber security teams to protect against attacks. “We expect that the ranks of cyber security professionals will grow significantly in 2019.”
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