America's fastest-growing job, mapped
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Want a career in America's fastest-growing field? Head to the Dakotas or Colorado, and look for jobs in wind energy.
Why it matters: Wind turbine service technician is the hottest job in the country, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with 60% growth projected between 2023-2033.
Driving the news: North Dakota (22.3), South Dakota (20.4) and Colorado (13.4) have the most wind energy-related jobs per 10,000 residents as of last year.
- That's according to the 2024 U.S. Energy & Employment Jobs Report (an annual U.S. Department of Energy analysis out this week), plus 2023 census population estimates.
Yes, but: Texas has the highest number of wind energy jobs overall, at nearly 27,400.
- That's more than double that of the next-highest state, Illinois, which has about 9,400.
Between the lines: That Texas has so many wind energy jobs in total could be a result of its huge population.
- But it's also a massive producer of wind power, and somebody's got to keep all those turbines spinning.
Reality check: The overall number of wind turbine tech jobs is still small: 11,400 nationwide as of 2023, per BLS. (Compare that to 349,600 for nurse practitioners, another top-five growth job.)
- Also worth noting: The Energy Department report captures a variety of wind-related jobs, whereas the BLS' growth rankings highlight turbine service technicians specifically.
The bottom line: Wind and solar — another big-growth field — increasingly look like pretty safe career bets, especially with the federal government pushing them big time.
