From 2025 to 2035, U.S. total employment will edge up 3.5% to 176.2 million jobs, adding 5.9 million positions. Healthcare and social assistance will drive 37% of that growth, adding 2.2 million jobs, while AI power demands accelerate renewable energy hiring, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics projections.
The U.S. labor market faces a decade of slower overall expansion as demographic shifts take hold. The projected 3.5% growth rate from 2025 to 2035 represents a fraction of the 10.9% pace seen during the prior decade from 2015 to 2025, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report released late last month.
Behind the headline numbers, however, distinct economic forces are reshaping where workers will find opportunity. An aging population, expanding chronic health conditions, and surging electricity demands from data centers are steering employment growth into specific sectors.
Healthcare Dominates New Job Creation
Healthcare and social assistance will expand employment by 2.2 million over the next decade. Operating at a 9.5% growth rate, the sector will account for 37% of all new jobs created through 2035.
Emily Krutsch, chief for the Division of Employment Projections at the BLS, notes that this expansion stems from the aging population in the U.S. and the high prevalence of behavioral health disorders and chronic conditions like cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. In the past year already, healthcare has been the leading sector for job creation in the economy’s growth as other sectors lag behind.
Within this umbrella, nurse practitioners lead the charge among the top 10 fastest-growing roles. Nurse practitioner positions are projected to grow by roughly 137,800 jobs, representing a 41% surge in employment. While nurse practitioners see the greatest percentage change, medical and health services managers are projected to grow fastest in raw numbers with an estimated 155,100 jobs coming, alongside a 24% jump in employment.
AI Power Demands Spur Renewable Energy Surge
As artificial intelligence adoption ripples through the economy, the utility industry is set to hire at the fastest rate of any major sector, growing employment by 9.8%. Hyperscalers are actively scrambling to build data centers that require immense amounts of electricity.
Nearly all job growth in this category stems from electric power generation, transmission, and distribution. Within utilities, solar electric power generation is projected to jump 153%, while wind electric power generation climbs 62%. Overall, renewable energy roles such as solar photovoltaic installers and wind turbine service technicians are expected to see very fast employment growth, driven directly by artificial intelligence power demands and related infrastructure like data centers.
Yet while growth percentages in clean energy are steep, their raw job additions are relatively small at less than 15,000 cumulatively. The additional hiring by utilities translates overall to 58,800 jobs.
Tech Talent and High Exposure to Artificial Intelligence
Despite fears that artificial intelligence will eliminate software and programming positions, professional, scientific, and technical services will rank as the third-fastest growing sector at 8.6%, adding 926,700 jobs. This trend reflects a growing demand for IT products and services, and the need to store, manage, and analyze large amounts of data.
Data scientists are expected to see approximately 95,400 jobs added, with total employment for the occupation growing 34.6%. Computer and information research scientist roles are projected to grow by roughly 8,400, or 21.8%.
These math and computer occupations carry a very high
relative AI exposure, according to the BLS. This classification means a larger proportion of their responsibilities can be aided or completed by AI technology, and large language models have been observed performing some of these tasks.
The BLS emphasizes that this classification is not a prediction of employment growth or decline. High relative AI exposure does not automatically translate to dropped employment numbers.
Contractions Across Retail and Administrative Support
While certain sectors boom, artificial intelligence and automation will weigh on employment elsewhere. The office and administrative support sector will see a 4% drop, shedding 752,100 jobs—the most of any major occupational group. Sales and related occupations will fall by 1.4% as e-commerce expands and businesses incorporate AI further into commercial processes.
Outside the corporate sector, retail trade and the federal government are expected to decline during the decade by 0.2% and 3.4%, respectively. However, officials stress that a projected decline does not mean career pathways are disappearing entirely.
The broader economy will expand more slowly as the U.S. population ages and the labor force participation rate declines, with older workers nearing retirement and fewer young workers entering the workforce to replace them.
