Taking charge! Jobs for leaders on Leadership Day

Do you like to lead? Are you good at helping others achieve goals by mentoring them, offering direction, building teams, and taking charge? In recognition of Leadership Day, February 20, let’s look at some occupations with large projected job growth for which leadership skills are especially important.

Of the 10 leadership occupations that are projected to add the most jobs over the 2024–34 decade, 5 are management occupations and 2 are nursing occupations. The job gains projected for these 10 occupations range from 166,100 for registered nurses to 59,800 for managers, all other.

Many of the 10 leadership occupations projected to add the most jobs are projected to grow faster or much faster than the 3.1-percent average growth projected for all occupations. These fast-growing occupations include nurse practitioners (40.1 percent) and medical and health services managers (23.2 percent). General and operations managers (4.4 percent) and managers, all other (4.5 percent) are projected to grow about as fast as the average over the decade.

Nine of the 10 leadership occupations with the largest projected job growth had annual mean wages above the U.S. average of $67,920 in May 2024, including computer and information systems managers ($187,990) and financial managers ($180,470). These high wages may reflect high educational requirements. One of the nine occupations with above-average wages, nurse practitioners, typically requires a master’s degree for entry. Seven of the nine typically require a bachelor’s degree, including management analysts, and one, electricians, typically requires a high school diploma or the equivalent. First-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers, which had an annual mean wage of $44,900, typically requires a high school diploma or the equivalent for entry.

This TED highlights occupations with the largest projected job growth for which leadership skills are "very important" or "extremely important"', based on skills data from the Employment Projections program. See our video on Using Skills Information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Projected 2024–34 employment change and typical entry-level educational requirements are from Employment Projections and wage estimates are from Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.