Job Search & Career Blog

Jobs in Emerging Markets

January 30th, 2008

Emerging Job Markets: New careers opening up

Demand is creating new markets for job seekers. Industries are being expanded by a rapidly growing need for services. In the next ten years, it is anticipated that health, IT, global marketing, and the sciences will create a lot of new jobs, and add to their existing structures.

Health

Because of an aging population, and the onset of modern health problems like obesity, depression, diabetes, tuberculosis, STDs, and a wide range of other conditions, the strain on health systems around the world is increasing.

The need is for more specialists, nurses, doctors, therapists, technicians, and administrators. Although the public health systems are under severe strain through funding, the private health sector is very strong, and demand for private care is also increasing.

There’s also a need in the US for patient advocates, who assist patients in obtaining best levels of care, and represent them in cases where a dispute is created by terms of insurance, charges, or treatments. This is essentially a mediation/conflict resolution/ advisory role.

Also emerging is a demand for information specialists, called "health informatics specialists", who help in handling the large amounts of data generated by medical information. The jobs include everything from basic data handling to designing and developing new systems.

IT

Information technology is now expanding into new areas. A second generation of technology has vastly increased the number of applications and services available online and in LANs. Education, gaming, telecommunications, media, and other sectors are drastically increasing the data loads carried by systems, and IT is the indispensable workhorse for management of these systems.

That’s also created a demand for teachers, and information system specialists. In effect, the demand has generated the creation of a much bigger support industry, as well as the increased demand in the various industrial sectors.

Environmentalism

The creation of laws and environmental agencies in the last 20 years has spawned a range of new eco-friendly industries, and a lot of new initiatives and programs for environmental regulation and protection.

The range of jobs is huge:

1. Environmental engineers.
2. Green energy sources and related technologies
3. Water conservation and management.
4. Environmental management.
5. Waste management.
6. Recycling.
7. Biological systems.
8. Pollution control.
9. Land reclamation and land use specialists.
10. Agricultural practices.
11. Zoology, and threatened species conservation.
12. Community and global activist groups.
13. Industry consultants.
14. New technology.
15. Support and administration for the above.

Environmental issues now pervade most industries. All generate some level of waste, all are looking for cheaper and environmentally sustainable methods. In some industries, penalties apply for pollutants, and waste disposal costs are often extremely high. So new and existing technologies are being explored as a part of the basic business economics of most industries.

Global demand is definitely increasing, and rapidly. Both China and India, very big markets, are looking for ways to address their serious pollution, waste and water issues.

Security

Global terrorism, crime, and social problems have also made a mark on employment, as well as societies. Advanced technology, very high government priorities on security, and increasing demand for commercial security, have pushed the security sector into the category of a major employer.

With this demand has come a huge range of new methods. Surveillance, chemical detection, security weaponry, patrol techniques, planning, and many new scientific applications are becoming big business.

Jobs in the sector range from basic security guards to IT specialists, security system analysts, developers, and a range of advisory consultancies, legal and professional. There’s also ongoing contract work in the industries that supply the security industry, and in many cases security specialists can move between roles in security and those support industries.

Global markets

Globalization has brought with it a lot of new marketing and sales methods, and a need for commercial and government businesses to interact closely.

In commerce, local knowledge and contacts, combined with skills are very salable in the job market. Familiarity with the economies, second languages, business regulations, and industries of other countries are now very common criteria for exporters and importers.

On the higher levels, Knowledge of emerging markets, industry demands, commodities, equity markets, commercial rates, contract laws, licensing, and government policy and legal framework are essential.

The expansion of global trade has created global experts, who have to work across a wide range of commercial and legal environments.

A product manufacturer, for example, has to be able to market the product in another country.

That means complying with all relevant laws, many of which are so detailed that that they literally equate to measurements, components, and safety guidelines. So everything related to foreign trade, from production to contracts to sales, has now grown a built-in need for experts.

It’s also added a need for market research, advertising, and sales methods tuned to foreign markets, as well as the basic need for good interpreters. It’s not at all uncommon now to see "Must speak Mandarin", or "Native Hindustani speaker" or "Arabic speaker" as requirements on a job application.

On the technical level, second language skills, and a knowledge of foreign industries can be vital. Translation and interpretation of scientific and technical data can be so difficult. Some things don’t translate well into English, and some foreign words don’t have English equivalents.

So even at ground level, the global market, which is worth trillions, is generating a new skills base.

Education is another big emerging market. The education sector is currently growing very rapidly, and is worth billions. The US, Europe, Australia, India, and others are working to global markets for their educational products. Naturally, those products create requirements of their own, and those requirements create more jobs. Web development, IT, graphic artists, even cultural experts, whose job is often not to offend the cultures of other nations, are involved.

The Sciences

The science generating the most new jobs is biology. As new genetic products come into the market place, careers in sciences that didn’t even exist a decade ago are being created.

Everything from agriculture to groceries to medicine is affected. Biology used to be the Cinderella science. But as a range of products from cleaning enzymes to whole new species of genetically created plants and animals enters the market place, it’s becoming a star performer.

With that has come a boom in research and product development. Labs are screaming for people, as are research institutions. The high end jobs in the sector are big earners, and there are professional rewards, as well.

The sciences are finally getting some recognition as money-spinners. Industry has now finally cottoned on to the idea that new products make big profits.

The obvious areas for expansion are electronics, domestic appliances, communications, computers and construction. A lot of new domestic technology, in the forms of water savers, energy efficient white goods, and even basic electricals, is expanding demand. Global markets are also now generating demand for more advanced products, which is driving the expansion and diversification of the consumer goods industry.

In the next ten years, it is reasonable to expect that demand for staff will shift from existing jobs into a broader based structure, where staff will operate across a range of new technologies. The tendency is to do more work, using fewer staff, although job numbers go up because of the increase in business. Markets will be very different, as old methods fade away.

So will the job market. It’s a good idea to keep track of emerging jobs, even if you have a job.

This is where your job is heading. It may get there before you do, if you’re not careful, so stay alert.

Keep in touch with new trends in your industry, and how it’s changing.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at 4:47 am and is filed under Job Search. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply