1 map to go: America's fastest-growing job
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Want a career in America's fastest-growing field? 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: Oregon has four wind energy-related jobs per 10,000 residents as of last year. That puts us at No. 20 in the U.S.
- 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.
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.)
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.