Fastest-Growing Jobs Through 2035: BLS Data and AI

The 20 fastest-growing U.S. jobs to 2035 with pay, education and AI exposure. Plus why growth rate misleads, which jobs add the most workers, and what AI changes.

By Danyal Ahmed - Data Scientist · · 10 min read

The fastest-growing U.S. job through 2035 is nurse practitioner, projected to grow 41%, followed by solar photovoltaic installers (36.5%) and data scientists (34.6%), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But "fastest-growing" is a percentage. The occupation adding by far the most workers is home health and personal care aides, with about 847,300 new jobs, and the BLS projects total U.S. employment to grow just 3.5% over the decade, adding 5.9 million jobs.

This guide gives you the full top-20 list with pay, education and annual openings, then does what most lists skip: separates growth rate from jobs added and openings, checks the new BLS AI-exposure ratings against growth, and shows which fast-growing careers are open without a four-year degree. We computed the cross-comparisons ourselves from BLS's official data and label them as ours. For the AI side, see our explainer on Anthropic's AI jobs study.

Key takeaways

  • Health care dominates. 12 of the 20 fastest-growing occupations are health care, and health care and social assistance accounts for about 37% of all projected job growth.
  • Growth rate misleads. One job, home health aides, is 14% of all new jobs. The other 19 fastest growers together add about 841,000.
  • AI exposure does not set growth. Occupations in BLS's highest AI-exposure tier grow about 2% overall, but include data scientists (+34.6%) and data entry keyers (−25.5%).
  • Half the top 20 don't require a bachelor's degree.
  • Slower than before. Total growth is 3.5% against 10.9% over 2015–25.

The 20 fastest-growing jobs, 2025–35

Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook and Employment Projections tables (updated Aug 27, 2026). Pay is the 2025 median, not a starting salary. "AI tier" is BLS's relative exposure category.

# Occupation Growth New jobs Pay Entry education AI tier
1 Nurse practitioners 41.0% 137,800 $132,300 Master's High
2 Solar photovoltaic installers 36.5% 11,300 $53,140 HS diploma Moderate
3 Data scientists 34.6% 95,400 $120,230 Bachelor's Very high
4 Wind turbine service technicians 29.5% 3,500 $64,120 Postsecondary award Moderate
5 Medical & health services managers 24.2% 155,100 $123,860 Bachelor's High
6 Physical therapist assistants 23.0% 26,200 $68,380 Associate's Low
7 Psychiatric technicians 22.3% 36,000 $45,130 Postsecondary award Moderate
8 Computer & information research scientists 21.8% 8,400 $140,300 Master's Very high
9 Occupational therapy assistants 21.5% 11,200 $72,300 Associate's Moderate
10 Ophthalmic medical technicians 21.4% 15,500 $45,570 Postsecondary award Low
11 Physician assistants 21.1% 35,700 $135,880 Master's Low
12 Information security analysts 21.0% 40,600 $129,180 Bachelor's Very high
13 Occupational health & safety technicians 19.4% 6,100 $61,560 HS diploma Moderate
14 Hearing aid specialists 19.4% 2,200 $65,160 HS diploma Moderate
15 Epidemiologists 18.7% 2,400 $87,220 Master's High
16 Occupational health & safety specialists 18.5% 26,400 $90,150 Bachelor's High
17 Substance abuse, behavioral disorder & mental health counselors 18.4% 98,000 $59,350 Master's High
18 Home health & personal care aides 18.1% 847,300 $35,800 HS diploma Moderate
19 Health specialties teachers, postsecondary 17.9% 49,900 $107,310 Doctoral Very high
20 Industrial machinery mechanics 17.8% 79,700 $64,520 HS diploma Moderate

Seven of the 20 pay more than $100,000 a year: nurse practitioners, data scientists, medical and health services managers, computer and information research scientists, physician assistants, information security analysts and health specialties teachers.

Fastest-growing is not the same as most jobs

There are three different lists, and they tell different stories.

List What it measures Leader
Fastest-growing Percentage change Nurse practitioners (41.0%)
Most new jobs Numeric change Home health & personal care aides (847,300)
Most openings New jobs plus replacement of people who leave Fast food & counter workers (827,400 a year)

A small occupation can grow 40% and add few jobs. Wind turbine technicians grow 29.5%, which is 3,500 jobs, with about 1,500 openings a year. Solar installers grow 36.5%, or 11,300 jobs. A huge occupation growing modestly can add far more: stockers and order fillers grow 8.9% and add 250,700 jobs.

Overlap is smaller than you'd expect. Only 6 of the 20 fastest growers are also in the top 20 for new jobs (nurse practitioners, data scientists, medical and health services managers, counselors, industrial machinery mechanics and home health aides). Only one, home health aides, is in the top 20 of all three lists.

Openings include turnover. Customer service representatives are projected to lose 141,800 jobs, yet they have about 289,500 openings a year because people leave and transfer. A shrinking job can still hire.

The dominance of one job. Home health and personal care aides account for 847,300 of the 5.9 million new jobs, about 14%. They also have about 760,500 openings a year, but a median pay of $35,800. Take them out and the other 19 fastest-growing occupations add about 841,000 jobs, roughly 14% of the total (our calculation).

Where the 5.9 million new jobs come from

Health care and social assistance is projected to add over 2.2 million jobs, about 37% of all growth. The fastest-growing major occupational groups are health care support (+13.3%), health care practitioners and technical (+8.0%), life, physical and social science (+7.5%), community and social service (+7.4%) and computer and mathematical (+7.3%).

The biggest losses are in office and administrative support, projected to shrink 4.0% and lose 752,100 jobs. Across all 831 occupations, 232 are projected to decline, with about 1.7 million jobs lost against about 7.6 million gained (our calculation).

Why health care leads: BLS's occupation pages repeatedly point to an aging population. The Census Bureau projects 78 million Americans aged 65 or older by 2035 versus 76.4 million under 18.

What about AI?

In August 2026 BLS published, for the first time, an AI-exposure category for each of its 831 occupations: low, moderate, high or very high. It combines five outside measures, three theoretical and two based on observed AI use, including work by Anthropic and Microsoft. BLS is explicit: exposure "does not imply job loss, productivity gains, automation probability, or wage effects."

We compared those tiers with projected growth (our calculation from BLS's workbook):

AI exposure tier Occupations Employment-weighted growth 2025–35
Low 213 2.5%
Moderate 206 6.2%
High 206 3.1%
Very high 206 2.0%

The most exposed tier grows more slowly than the 3.5% average. The Moderate tier looks strong largely because it contains home health aides. But the tier by itself is a poor predictor: among the 206 "very high" occupations, 18 grow 10% or more, and 60 decline.

Why some AI-exposed jobs still grow. BLS says data scientists will be needed "to help businesses leverage AI," computer and information research scientists will build "new technologies related to artificial intelligence," and information security analysts are in demand partly because "increased use of artificial intelligence (AI)... [has] increased the need for enhanced security." Software developers benefit from continued expansion of software for AI, IoT and robotics.

Where BLS expects AI-linked decline. The agency says automation tools, including AI-powered ones, are likely to reduce demand for several office and administrative support and sales occupations, and generative AI may limit demand in arts, design and media. Data entry keyers (−25.5%), customer service representatives (−5.3%), and word processors and typists (−34.4%) are examples.

A fair caution. BLS's exposure ratings use Anthropic's observed-usage research as one input, so don't treat the match between the two as independent proof. Neither dataset establishes that AI causes any projected change.

"Tech" is not one job market

Computer and mathematical occupations grow 7.3%, but that number hides a split.

Occupation Projected change 2025–35 Pay
Data scientists +34.6% $120,230
Computer & information research scientists +21.8% $140,300
Information security analysts +21.0% $129,180
Operations research analysts +11.9% $88,940
Software developers +10.2% (+174,700 jobs) $135,980
Web developers +3.8% $92,650
Computer programmers −7.3% $100,390
Network & computer systems administrators −4.1% $99,130
Computer user support specialists −3.5% $61,860

Software developers add more jobs than any other occupation paying $100,000 or more except general and operations managers, and they are the sixth-largest source of new jobs overall.

Slower than BLS's previous round. In its earlier 2024–34 projections, BLS had software developers at +15.8% and information security analysts at +28.5%. The new figures are 10.2% and 21.0%. The projection years and baselines differ, so treat the gap as a direction, not an exact change. Press coverage linked it to AI adoption, but BLS does not attribute the slowdown to a single cause.

Fast-growing careers without a four-year degree

Half of the top 20 do not require a bachelor's degree. Filtering the full BLS dataset for growth of 10% or more, pay of $55,000 or more, and at least 5,000 openings a year, with no bachelor's required:

Occupation Growth Pay Openings/yr Typical path
Diagnostic medical sonographers 13.9% $96,590 6,000 Associate's
Electrical power-line installers 10.3% $95,320 10,900 HS + long-term on-the-job training
Occupational therapy assistants 21.5% $72,300 8,100 Associate's
Physical therapist assistants 23.0% $68,380 18,500 Associate's
Industrial machinery mechanics 17.8% $64,520 44,400 HS + long-term training
Medical equipment repairers 12.6% $61,660 8,200 Associate's
HVAC mechanics & installers 10.9% $61,010 40,600 Postsecondary award
Massage therapists 15.3% $58,450 20,400 Postsecondary award

"No four-year degree" is not "no training": most of these need an associate's degree, a certificate, licensure or years of on-the-job training or apprenticeship. Electricians narrowly miss the growth filter (+9.2%) but have about 72,700 openings a year at $63,190 with an apprenticeship.

A more useful ranking: our opportunity score

To go beyond growth rate, we built an editorial score (not an official BLS measure). For the 584 occupations with at least 20,000 jobs and a reported wage, we took each occupation's percentile rank for growth rate, new jobs, annual openings and median pay, plus an accessibility score from entry education (high school or none = 1.0, postsecondary award = 0.8, associate's = 0.7, bachelor's = 0.5, master's = 0.25, doctoral = 0.1), and averaged the five equally.

Top results: industrial machinery mechanics (87.1), electricians (86.4), computer and information systems managers (86.0), medical and health services managers (85.6), software developers (85.6) and data scientists (82.8).

Limits: the score favors large occupations, the equal weights are arbitrary, and the top results are tightly bunched, so read it as a way to compare options, not a precise ranking.

What about clean energy?

Solar installers and wind technicians rank high on growth rate, but the numbers are small: roughly 14,800 new jobs combined. They are also exposed to policy. The federal residential solar tax credit ended on December 31, 2025, and press reports describe layoffs at residential installers. BLS's occupation pages do not discuss that policy change, so treat the projected growth as a baseline, not a guarantee.

What the data cannot tell you

  • Projected growth is not guaranteed growth. These are BLS projections, not forecasts of any one person's career.
  • Median pay is not starting pay. Entry salaries are usually lower.
  • Percent growth is not opportunity. Look at openings and jobs added too.
  • Nothing here is about location, which strongly affects demand.
  • AI exposure is not a prediction of job loss.

Want help building your data or AI product?

Data science and AI roles are growing, and so is the work of building tools around them. If you are planning an analytics or AI product, get a scope estimate for your data project, or read more on AI agent development. For the analytics side, see how to identify the right KPIs and the difference between data science, analytics and ML.

FAQ

What is the fastest-growing job in the U.S.?

Nurse practitioner, projected to grow 41% from 2025 to 2035 (about 137,800 new jobs), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Which job will add the most workers by 2035?

Home health and personal care aides, with about 847,300 new jobs, far more than any other occupation.

Are data scientists still growing despite AI?

Yes. BLS projects data scientists to grow 34.6% (95,400 jobs) with a median pay of $120,230, and describes AI adoption and data growth as drivers. BLS also rates the occupation "very high" for AI exposure, which does not mean job loss.

Which fast-growing jobs don't require a bachelor's degree?

Physical and occupational therapy assistants (associate's), industrial machinery mechanics, HVAC mechanics, diagnostic medical sonographers, and solar and wind technicians. Most still need an associate's degree, a certificate or long on-the-job training.

Does AI exposure mean a job will disappear?

No. BLS says exposure is relative and "does not imply job loss." The highest-exposure tier includes both fast-growing and shrinking occupations.

Is software development still a good career?

BLS projects software developers to grow 10.2% with about 95,300 openings a year and a median pay of $135,980, though computer programmers are projected to decline 7.3%. The role you target matters.

How reliable are BLS projections?

They are long-term structural estimates based on stated assumptions, not guarantees. BLS itself notes that exposure categories are not forecasts.

Sources