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What Are the Careers of the Future?

Choosing a career can be difficult. That's why Gallup and Amazon Future Engineer have partnered to create the Careers of the Future Index to help young adults and their advisers make informed career choices. Explore the interactive data and download the report and full dataset below to learn more.

Overview

See the Top-Ranking Career Paths

The Careers of the Future Index (CFI) is designed to give future job seekers the information and perspective they need to choose a career path. The index ranks each career based on a weighted average of income, job availability, job growth and resistance to automation. The CFI database also provides information on trends in racial and gender diversity, as well as the career prospects of adjacent jobs.

Select from the categories below to see the top-ranking careers.

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Summary Findings

Top Careers Ranking

Select from the tabs below to see the top careers by category.

Top 20 careers, sorted by CFI score.

  1. Surgeons CFI: 100
  2. Astronomers and Physicists CFI: 100
  3. Nurse Anesthetists CFI: 100
  4. Physicians CFI: 100
  5. Project Management Specialists CFI: 100
  6. Other Mathematical Science Occupations CFI: 99
  7. Chief Executives and Legislators CFI: 99
  8. Architectural and Engineering Managers CFI: 99
  9. Dentists CFI: 99
  10. Actuaries CFI: 99
  11. Nurse Practitioners and Nurse Midwives CFI: 98
  12. Lawyers, and judges, magistrates, and other judicial workers CFI: 98
  13. Other Managers CFI: 98
  14. Financial and Investment Analysts CFI: 98
  15. Sales Engineers CFI: 98
  16. Optometrists CFI: 97
  17. Economists CFI: 97
  18. Software Developers CFI: 97
  19. Computer And Information Research Scientists CFI: 97
  20. Podiatrists CFI: 97

Top 20 careers in which most workers have a bachelor's degree but not an advanced degree, sorted by CFI score.

  1. Actuaries CFI: 99
  2. Financial and Investment Analysts CFI: 98
  3. Sales Engineers CFI: 98
  4. Software Developers CFI: 97
  5. Chemical Engineers CFI: 96
  6. Petroleum, mining and geological engineers, including mining safety engineers CFI: 95
  7. Other Engineers CFI: 94
  8. Aerospace Engineers CFI: 94
  9. Electrical and Electronics Engineers CFI: 94
  10. Public Relations and Fundraising Managers CFI: 94
  11. Mechanical Engineers CFI: 93
  12. Personal Financial Advisors CFI: 92
  13. Marketing Managers CFI: 92
  14. Aircraft Pilots and Flight Engineers CFI: 91
  15. Civil Engineers CFI: 91
  16. Materials Engineers CFI: 90
  17. Securities, Commodities, and Financial Services Sales Agents CFI: 90
  18. Atmospheric and Space Scientists CFI: 89
  19. Industrial Engineers, including Health and Safety CFI: 88
  20. Registered Nurses CFI: 88

Top 20 careers in which most workers do not have a bachelor's degree, sorted by CFI score.

  1. First-Line Supervisors of Fire Fighting and Prevention Workers CFI: 89
  2. Cardiovascular Technologists And Technicians CFI: 89
  3. Constructions Managers CFI: 87
  4. Industrial Production Managers CFI: 87
  5. Power Plant Operators, Distributors, and Dispatchers CFI: 85
  6. Elevator Installers and Repairers CFI: 85
  7. First-Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives CFI: 85
  8. General and Operations Managers CFI: 82
  9. Air Traffic Controllers and Airfield Operations Specialists CFI: 81
  10. Entertainment And Recreation Managers CFI: 81
  11. Facilities Managers CFI: 80
  12. Fire Inspectors CFI: 77
  13. Cost Estimators CFI: 77
  14. Occupational Therapy Assistants and Aides CFI: 76
  15. Logisticians CFI: 75
  16. Electrical Power-Line Installers and Repairers CFI: 75
  17. Other Rail Transportation Workers CFI: 75
  18. Police Officers CFI: 75
  19. First-Line Supervisors of Mechanics, Installers, and Repairers CFI: 74
  20. First-Line Supervisors of Non-Retail Sales CFI: 73

Top careers by sector, sorted by CFI. Shows Indeed career clusters, which describe broad fields of work.

  1. Business, Management and Administration CFI: 89
  2. Information Technology CFI: 89
  3. Finance CFI: 79
  4. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics CFI: 84
  5. Health Science CFI: 66
  6. Law, Public Safety, Corrections and Security CFI: 64
  7. Arts, Audio/Visual Technology and Communications CFI: 68
  8. Education and Training CFI: 66
  9. Architecture and Construction CFI: 52
  10. Human Services CFI: 53
  11. Marketing, Sales and Service CFI: 52
  12. Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources CFI: 36
  13. Manufacturing CFI: 33
  14. Transportation, Distribution and Logistics CFI: 32
  15. Government and Public Administration CFI: 26
  16. Hospitality and Tourism CFI: 12

Top occupations in which most workers have a bachelor's degree by sector, sorted by CFI. Shows Indeed career clusters, which describe broad fields of work.

  1. Information Technology CFI: 95
  2. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics CFI: 91
  3. Business, Management and Administration CFI: 92
  4. Transportation, Distribution and Logistics CFI: 91
  5. Health Science CFI: 88
  6. Marketing, Sales and Service CFI: 84
  7. Finance CFI: 77
  8. Architecture and Construction CFI: 79
  9. Arts, Audio/Visual Technology and Communications CFI: 70
  10. Human Services CFI: 65

Top occupations in which most workers have a bachelor's degree by sector, sorted by CFI. Shows Indeed career clusters, which describe broad fields of work.

  1. Business, Management and Administration CFI: 71
  2. Finance CFI: 67
  3. Information Technology CFI: 66
  4. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics CFI: 61
  5. Arts, Audio/Visual Technology and Communications CFI: 57
  6. Law, Public Safety, Corrections and Security CFI: 54
  7. Architecture and Construction CFI: 50
  8. Marketing, Sales and Service CFI: 43
  9. Health Science CFI: 38
  10. Manufacturing CFI: 33
  11. Transportation, Distribution and Logistics CFI: 31
  12. Human Services CFI: 30
  13. Government and Public Administration CFI: 26
  14. Education and Training CFI: 26
  15. Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources CFI: 25
  16. Hospitality and Tourism CFI: 12

Gender proportionality by sector of career, using Indeed career clusters, sorted from most to least proportionate. Shows the mean difference between the group share of workers in an occupation and the group share of all workers, divided by the group share of all workers. Lower scores indicate greater proportionality, with zero indicating that group shares match labor force shares.

  1. Architecture and Construction Disproportionality Index: 76
  2. Health Science Disproportionality Index: 68
  3. Government and Public Administration Disproportionality Index: 66
  4. Transportation, Distribution and Logistics Disproportionality Index: 60
  5. Human Services Disproportionality Index: 55
  6. Education and Training Disproportionality Index: 54
  7. Manufacturing Disproportionality Index: 48
  8. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Disproportionality Index: 44
  9. Law, Public Safety, Corrections and Security Disproportionality Index: 44
  10. Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources Disproportionality Index: 44
  11. Information Technology Disproportionality Index: 40
  12. Hospitality and Tourism Disproportionality Index: 38
  13. Business, Management and Administration Disproportionality Index: 26
  14. Finance Disproportionality Index: 26
  15. Arts, Audio/Visual Technology and Communications Disproportionality Index: 25
  16. Marketing, Sales and Service Disproportionality Index: 20

Racial/ethnic proportionality by sector of career, using Indeed career clusters, sorted by from most to least proportionate. Shows the mean difference between the group share of workers in an occupation and the group share of all workers, divided by the group share of all workers. Lower scores indicate greater proportionality, with zero indicating that group shares match labor force shares.

  1. Information Technology Disproportionality Index: 62
  2. Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources Disproportionality Index: 62
  3. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Disproportionality Index: 50
  4. Hospitality and Tourism Disproportionality Index: 48
  5. Architecture and Construction Disproportionality Index: 47
  6. Arts, Audio/Visual Technology and Communications Disproportionality Index: 39
  7. Health Science Disproportionality Index: 38
  8. Human Services Disproportionality Index: 37
  9. Law, Public Safety, Corrections and Security Disproportionality Index: 36
  10. Transportation, Distribution and Logistics Disproportionality Index: 35
  11. Manufacturing Disproportionality Index: 33
  12. Education and Training Disproportionality Index: 31
  13. Finance Disproportionality Index: 30
  14. Marketing, Sales and Service Disproportionality Index: 26
  15. Government and Public Administration Disproportionality Index: 25
  16. Business, Management and Administration Disproportionality Index: 24

The Careers of the Future Index is a weighted average of occupation-level data on income, job growth, job vacancies per unemployed worker and resistance to automation. Gallup drew upon several sources to construct these metrics. Income and job growth data were compiled from the 2021 and 2010 U.S. Census Bureau (via IPUMS USA). These data were also used to calculate the number of unemployed workers and provide contextual data on the educational attainment, racial and gender demographics of workers in each occupation/career. Lightcast (formerly Burning Glass) was the source for job vacancies by occupation, using data from June 2021 to May 2022. The resistance to automation index is a summary measure of the level and importance of non-automatable tasks to each occupation. It was constructed using data from the 2019 Gallup Great Jobs Survey and O*NET data on the tasks performed by each occupation. These sources allowed the authors to create a measure of how likely workers in each occupation are to believe that their job could be automated or replaced by a machine or robot. Starting with 24 tasks that were identified in the scientific literature as relevant to automation, Gallup estimated how well the level and importance of each task predicts automation risk. The strength of the statistical relationship between each task and automation risk is then used as a weight to calculate the mean important/level of automatable and non-automatable tasks for each occupation. See the report’s appendix for details.

Detailed Results

Explore Your Career Options

Select an option below to learn more about all careers. Use the up or down arrows at the top of the column to change how the list is sorted.

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Careers of the Future Index • CFI for all jobs • Bachelor's-only jobs • Sub-bachelor's jobs down arrow
Career Qualities • Income • Job growth • Vacancies per seeker • Resistance to automation • Sub-bachelor's jobs down arrow
Proportionality • Gender proportionality • Racial proportionality down arrow

Careers of the Future Index

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Career Qualities

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Proportionality

Use the chart below to see how well each career reflects the nation's gender or racial diversity.

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Additional Resources

More From Gallup and Amazon

Get more data and insight on careers, digital skills, upskilling and more.

Amazon Research Hub Amazon and Gallup are committed to exploring cutting-edge topics on the intersection of technology, skills and work. Learn More about Amazon Research Hub
Data-Driven Career Advice Download the report for insights into tomorrow's best careers.Download Report about Data-Driven Career Advice
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