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The most in-demand high income jobs are in tech

Careers in technology relating to mobile application development, data science and server infrastructure are dominating a list of the fastest growing U.S. job titles for high income earners.
Written by David Worthington, Contributor

Careers in technology relating to mobile application development, data science and server infrastructure are dominating a list of the fastest growing U.S. job titles for high income earners.

TheLadders, a "job matching" service, released the results of a study last Friday that examined which job titles its 6 million members and 60,000 participating employers are searching for. The study also showed a decline in middle management positions. TheLadders only focused on jobs that pay six-figure salaries until 2011, so the study isn't fully macro (here's a more nuanced examination of job growth that includes all income levels).

TheLadders's most popular job titles through 2008 and 2013 were:

  1. Dev Ops Engineer
  2. iOS Developer
  3. Data Scientist
  4. UX Designer
  5. Staff Accountant
  6. Paralegal
  7. UI Developer
  8. Administrative Assistant
  9. Android Developer
  10. Business Intelligence Developer

Another recent study found that software engineers and systems analysts were among the most rewarding jobs. The average salaries are just below US$100,000.

"In examining job growth over the past five years, there is an undeniable demand for developers and analysts who possess unique expertise within the burgeoning STEM industries," said Shankar Mishra, vice president of data science & analytics for TheLadders. "On the opposite end of the spectrum, once-coveted management jobs are rapidly declining, revealing a trend that high-earning professionals are not necessarily on a management track, nor do they desire to be."

Tech hubs are drawing most of these positions. New York City led the pack, followed by the San Francisco Bay Area, Washington D.C., and Dallas-Fort Worth metro areas. New York has been nicknamed "Silicon Alley" due to its start-up growth and the rise in more established companies such as Google that reside there.

It's worth noting that TheLadders could just be a popular place to recruit tech talent and not representative of the U.S. labor market as a whole. Still, it provides a glimpse into what the most highly demanded job roles are.

Jobs that are popular below the six-figure mark include skin care specialists, personal care aides, financial planners, coaches, HR managers, massage therapists, music directors and composers, interpreters, as well as oil and gas technicians. The oil and gas industry has experienced incredible job growth in recent years.

TheLadders jobs list is likely to change dramatically in the coming years. It's been projected that machines may replace nearly half the workforce by 2040, but somebody will still have to service our robotic overlords.

(Thumbnail: Flickr/Adam Freidin)

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