- Connecticut Department of Labor issues forecast for shift in occupations in state by 2028
- Personal care, IT, and health care anticipated to see major growth, along with programmers for automated manufacturing processes
- Major decline projected in several office and administrative roles
Summary by Dirk Langeveld
Connecticut will see a strong demand for professionals in health care, information technology, and personal services over the next decade, according to the latest update of a regular occupational outlook developed by the Connecticut Department of Labor.
The department’s Office of Research has released its occupational projections anticipating the changes in different fields and professions between 2018 and 2028. The outlook is updated every two years and serves as a resource for helping businesses to develop strategic plans, students to choose careers, schools to decide on training programs, and governments to update their budgets and services.
The data includes a variety of other information and resources, including wages for different occupations, available training courses, and job openings.
Fields with the strongest projected growth
Personal care and service is the occupational grouping expected to have the strongest proportional growth by 2028. This sector, which includes professions such as child and animal care providers, entertainment workers, and personal appearance workers, is projected to grow 17.4 percent.
Other substantial growth is expected in architecture and engineering, which is expected to grow 15.2 percent; computer and math professions, set to grow 14.6 percent; community and social services, expected to grow 14.4 percent; and health care support, anticipated to grow by 12.7 percent.
Architecture and engineering; community and social services; construction; and farming, fishing, and forestry were the occupational groupings where no profession is expected to see a decline in demand.
Community and social services are expected to see major demand by 2028, with nine of the 12 professions identified in this grouping projected to experience double-digit growth. Across-the-board growth is expected in health care support occupations with the exception of pharmacy aides, whose numbers are projected to shrink by 13.1 percent.
Fields with the weakest projected growth
Two occupational groupings are projected to decline rather than grow by 2028. Office and administrative support positions are expected to shrink by 2.8 percent, with sales jobs falling by 0.8 percent.
Groupings with weaker growth include production, which is projected to grow just 0.8 percent; education, set to inch up 0.9 percent; farming, fishing, and forestry, which is forecast to grow 1.4 percent; and arts and entertainment, anticipated to grow 2.8 percent.
Several projections suggest trends specific to individual sectors. For example, the DOL anticipates a decline in fast food and short order cooks will be offset by increases in demand for cooks elsewhere, including restaurants, cafeterias, and private households. The report also shows an anticipated decline in several manufacturing professions alongside a sharp increase in demand for programmers to develop automated processes.
Professions anticipated to have the strongest growth
The Department of Labor identified the following professions as showing the strongest projected growth by 2028 when compared to 2018 numbers:
- Personal care aides (up 34.9 percent)
- Computer numerically controlled machine tool programmers for metal and plastic (up 32.6 percent)
- Marriage and family therapists (up 31.6 percent)
- Rehabilitation counselors (up 28.9 percent)
- Software developers for applications (up 27.4 percent)
- Occupational therapy assistants (up 27.3 percent)
- Statisticians (up 26.8 percent)
- Home health aides (up 24.2 percent)
- Physician assistants (up 23.8 percent)
- Massage therapists (up 23.8 percent)
Professions anticipated to decline
The professions forecast to see the most significant decline by 2028 include:
- Parking enforcement officers (down 36.7 percent)
- Word processors and typists (down 32.2 percent)
- Switchboard operators (down 24 percent)
- Watch repairers (down 22.9 percent)
- Data entry keyers (down 22.1 percent)
- Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants (down 21.6 percent)
- Computer operators (down 21.4 percent)
- Legal secretaries (down 21 percent)
- Winders, tapers, and finishers (down 18 percent)
- Forging machine setters, operators, and tenders for metal and plastic (down 16.4 percent)
