Looking for a job? These roles are in demand in Philadelphia.
Many of the jobs with the most openings in Philadelphia right now require just a little bit of training to start, and can lead to higher-paying roles with more education and experience.
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The number of jobless people in the workforce remains low in the Philadelphia area, where unemployment was 3.7% at last count.
Still, the question remains for those who are jobless, or just entering the workforce: What industries and skill sets hold the most opportunity right now?
Some jobs are particularly likely to grow in the coming years, and while many of them require some amount of education or experience, some allow workers to start with on-the-job training and build from there. Those include nursing assistants, childcare workers, and receptionists.
Here’s a bit more advice from workforce experts on how to make the most of these growing industries.
In health care and hospitality, look for jobs with a career path
The fastest-growing sectors for Philadelphia right now are education and health services and leisure and hospitality, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Job growth near Philadelphia outpaced total U.S. employment growth in both of these industries.
A lot of the starting wages in these sectors are “OK, but not great,” said H. Patrick Clancy, CEO of Philadelphia Works, the city’s nonprofit workforce development board.
He suggested using those roles as a chance to gain experience before moving into related positions that offer more stability or better pay.
For instance, Clancy said, people who get restaurant experience may want to use that to get into a job at a hotel or casino, preferably one with a unionized staff.
“You could very well work your way up to assistant manager, general manager” without a college degree, he said. “You have to be able to sacrifice nights and weekends to start,” Clancy added.
Home health care is another job with huge demand for labor, but, “they’re tough jobs,” Clancy noted, where workers often end up driving around between multiple clients. “A more solid place to be eventually is a long-term care facility or a hospital.”
Getting started as a home health-care worker can provide valuable experience needed to land at a single workplace, he said, and those jobs won’t be going away.
H. Patrick Clancy, CEO of Philadelphia Works, said the following jobs all have training opportunities available through the nonprofit, and can generally be completed in six months or less.
- Certified nurse aide
- Clinical medical assistant
- Phlebotomy
- Emergency medical technician
- Sterile processing technician
Want an office job? Some are low-training and high-opportunity.
Clancy also noted finance and insurance as areas of high employment growth, climbing above pre-pandemic levels.
After education and health services and leisure and hospitality, professional and business services had the third-highest increase in employment last year for the Philadelphia metro area, according to BLS.
Christine Endres, a senior regional director for recruiting firm Robert Half, said a number of finance roles are at 1.5% unemployment or lower locally, including accounting, payroll, and analyst jobs.
The sector also provides entry-level opportunities, she noted, such as clerical roles. Even without a specialized degree or certification, she said, knowing how to use Microsoft Excel is a valuable skill for getting an entry-level position in the finance or accounting space.
For those looking for a career change, Endres said, auditing jobs focused on anti-money laundering work within financial services may be a consideration for those who are detail-oriented and critical. She’s seen people with a background in the legal industry, math, and former enforcement officers end up in those jobs.
And, while some of the big names in Big Tech did high-profile workforce reductions last year, information technology (IT) jobs remain in demand, Endres said.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry, just one job category is expected to decline in the coming years: office and administrative support. Still, the department noted, that doesn’t mean there won’t be demand for those workers. Only one of 10 jobs filled on average is the result of an industry’s expansion.
I want a career. Do I need to go to college?
Short answer: it depends.
Nearly two-thirds of Philadelphia jobs will require less than a four-year college degree by 2030, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry. That’s about 470,000 positions, of which about 255,000 will require “short-term” on-the-job training, and roughly 74,000 will require “moderate-term” on-the-job training.
Many of those jobs are a starting point for careers that may require higher education or a specialized degree. The state provides sample career paths by county and industry to help workers sketch out those plans, listing in-demand jobs for “today,” “tomorrow” and “the future.”
For example, a path within the Philadelphia health-care industry might look like this: home health aide today, nursing assistant tomorrow, and registered nurse further in the future.
While the number of jobs requiring a college education appears to be declining, jobs requiring an associate degree will have the highest growth rate at 10.5%, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry reports.
Some other jobs, requiring a bachelor’s degree or more, are unlikely to see their educational requirements lessen. Still, some of them are projected to stay in high demand, especially in health care. Most of those positions offer average annual salaries much higher than the area median.