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People and management skills: Career options projected to have fast growth and many openings

Amy Hopson and Elka Torpey | March 2025

Do you like building relationships? Helping customers? Leading people or projects? Whatever your skills, data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) can help point you toward a promising career.

This article pairs BLS skills data and employment projections to examine the job outlook for in-demand occupations where people and management skills are important. Keep reading to learn about some of these occupations.

Pairing data: Skills and projections

BLS publishes employment projections for 832 detailed occupations. For each of those occupations, BLS assigns scores that indicate the importance of various work-related skills. The charts that follow show selected occupations that scored highly for skills BLS identified as people or management skills:

• Adaptability
• Customer service
• Interpersonal
• Leadership
• Project management
• Speaking and listening

The occupations in this article were chosen because they are projected to be in demand over the 2023 to 2033 decade, with employment growth above the 4.0-percent average for all occupations and annual average openings above those of the median occupation (4,800 openings). Among the occupations that meet these criteria, each chart shows the 10 occupations with the highest skill scores, by skill. Projected openings (shown in the charts) arise both when new jobs are created and when workers leave an occupation permanently and need to be replaced. Hover over a bar in the charts to see how quickly employment in an occupation is projected to grow.

Adaptability

Adaptability skills involve adjusting behavior or work methods in response to new information; being open to change; maintaining composure even with evolving circumstances; and actively learning and using relevant knowledge to respond to changes. In 2023, adaptability skills ranked as very important or extremely important for 674 occupations. Chart 1 shows the occupations with the highest adaptability skill scores for those occupations projected to have many openings and fast growth.

Medical and health services managers has the most openings of the occupations in chart 1, with more than 61,000 projected each year, on average, over the 2023–33 decade. Other occupations with high adaptability scores and many projected openings include nurse practitioners and educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors.

Each of the occupations in chart 1 has a median annual wage higher than the median for all occupations ($48,060). All of the occupations in chart 1 typically require at least an associate’s degree. Many of them, such as speech-language pathologists and physician assistants, typically need a graduate degree for entry.

Customer service

Customer service skills involve working with clients, patients, consumers, and others who are outside of an organization; providing information and assistance; dealing with difficult people or situations; and helping people buy goods or services. In 2023, customer service skills ranked as very important for 237 occupations. Chart 2 shows the occupations with the highest customer service skill scores for those occupations projected to have many openings and fast growth.

Chart 2 shows first-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers has almost 187,000 annual average openings projected for the 2023–33 decade, by far the most of any occupation where customer service is important. Other occupations with high customer service scores and many projected openings include insurance sales agents; child, family, and school social workers; and flight attendants.

Most of the occupations in chart 2 can typically be entered with a high school diploma or less. The median annual wage for 6 of the 10 occupations in chart 2 is above the average for all occupations ($48,060) in 2023, with sales managers having the highest median annual wage ($135,160).

Interpersonal

Interpersonal skills involve developing strong and effective relationships and showing understanding, friendliness, tact, empathy, concern, and politeness to others. In 2023, interpersonal skills ranked as very important or extremely important for 306 occupations. Chart 3 shows the occupations with the highest interpersonal skill scores for those occupations projected to have many openings and fast growth.

Of the occupations in chart 3, substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors has the most openings, with almost 49,000 projected annually, on average, over the 2023–33 decade. The top nine occupations in chart 3 are all in the community and social service or healthcare occupation groups, demonstrating the importance of interpersonal skills for workers in these groups.

Overall, the occupations in chart 3 require high levels of education, with 8 of the 10 typically needing a master’s degree or higher for entry. All but one occupation in this chart have median annual wages above the median for all occupations ($48,060). Despite being the only occupation in chart 3 that does not typically require at least a bachelor’s degree, occupational therapy assistants has the third highest median wage at $67,010.

Leadership

Leadership skills involve influencing and guiding others; developing strategic plans; building teams; and offering direction. In 2023, leadership skills ranked as very important or extremely important for 185 occupations. Chart 4 shows the occupations with the highest leadership skill scores for those occupations projected to have many openings and fast growth.

Project management specialists has the most average annual openings projected among the occupations in chart 4. First-line supervisors of transportation and material moving workers, except aircraft cargo handling supervisors, and medical and health services managers also have over 60,000 openings projected each year, on average, over the 2023–33 decade. While managers and supervisors dominate these occupations, leadership skills also are important for chefs and head cooks—an occupation projected to have employment growth of 8.3 percent, more than double the rate across all occupations.

Most of the occupations in chart 4 typically require a bachelor’s degree for entry, and all except project management specialists typically need work experience in a related occupation. With these higher entry requirements comes higher pay: Each of the occupations in chart 4 has a median annual wage higher than the median for all occupations, and half have a median annual wage over $100,000.

Project management

Project management skills involve applying knowledge and processes to achieve specific objectives; coordinating resources; and monitoring costs, work, and contractor performance. In 2023, project management skills ranked as very important for 32 occupations. Chart 5 shows the occupations with the highest project management skill scores for those occupations projected to have many openings and fast growth.

Nine of the 10 occupations in chart 5 are management or business and financial occupations. General and operations managers is projected to have the most annual average openings (over 320,000) out of these occupations from 2023 to 2033—making it one of the occupations with the highest number of projected openings in the whole economy. Not surprisingly, project management specialists has a high project management skill score.

The occupations in chart 5 typically require a bachelor’s degree for entry, except for chefs and head cooks, which typically requires a high school diploma. Most of the occupations in chart 5 also have a median annual wage much higher than the median for all occupations.

Speaking and listening

Speaking and listening skills involve communicating verbally to convey and receive information. In 2023, speaking and listening ranked as very important for 314 occupations. Chart 6 shows the occupations with the highest speaking and listening skill scores for those occupations projected to have many openings and fast growth.

Training and development specialists has the most projected openings of the occupations in chart 6, followed closely by coaches and scouts. Speaking and listening skills are important for occupations across lots of different occupation groups, including management, education, and entertainment and sports.

All the occupations in chart 6 typically require at least a bachelor’s degree for entry. Chief executives, which also appears in the leadership and project management charts, has one of the highest median annual wages ($206,680) of any occupation.

For more information

In addition to the people and management skills included in this article, BLS has data for many other skills, such as creativity and innovation, critical and analytical thinking, and mathematics.   

Find out more about skills and how they relate to occupations by visiting the BLS skills data page. This page has information about how the data were developed as well as tables highlighting these data. If you know which skills you have or enjoy using, you can click on that skill to see a list of all occupations sorted by skill score.

Learn about the occupations in this article and hundreds of others in the Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH). The OOH describes what workers do, their pay, typical entry requirements, job outlook, and more. More information about the BLS education and training assignments by detailed occupation can be found in Table 5.4, available on the Employment Projections website.