When technology pros consider where to look for employment in the year ahead, it helps to know which industries are projected to see substantial growth.
Booming industries stimulate economic growth and create new job opportunities. Working at companies within those industries means you’ll have plenty of exposure to challenging assignments, lateral career moves and promotions.
So where should you focus your job-hunting efforts? Below are some of the industries that experts predict are going to thrive in 2025 and beyond.
5G Services
The third wave of the 5G revolution is underway and creating employment opportunities as it expands wireless technology to physical industries such as agriculture, energy, construction, manufacturing, IoT, transportation, education, healthcare, and government (including defense).
In fact, the Progressive Policy Institute estimates that 5G and related technologies will produce an additional 4.6 million jobs by 2034, including positions for precision agriculture software developers, engineering architects, remote construction database developers, digital manufacturing platform developers and more.
If you’d like to jump on the 5G bandwagon, Cisco, Nokia and Qualcomm offer training courses and certifications for professionals and engineers with previous telecom experience as well as beginners.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Many developers, security professionals and data engineers have turned to AI upskilling to future-proof their careers. Their efforts are already paying off. Nearly two-thirds of organizations are increasing their investments in generative AI adoption after experiencing strong value to date, according to Deloitte.
Taking the broadest view, the global AI market is poised to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (or CAGR) of 36.6 percent from 2024 to 2030, driving adoption of advanced technologies and solutions in industry verticals such as automotive, healthcare, retail, finance and manufacturing.
Best of all, professionals with AI skills have the flexibility to pursue high-paying roles in their preferred work environments and industries. From big tech companies such as Google, IBM, Amazon, Microsoft and Nvidia to mid-size companies and promising start-ups, thousands of companies need AI help.
Digital Education
The adoption of AI and other technologies has led to a huge increase in demand for lifelong learning and skills development. The chief beneficiary of this need is the digital education industry, which is projected to grow from $19.2 billion in 2023 to $95.7 billion by the end of 2030.
This vast and diverse market encompasses learning management platforms, online learning providers, interactive learning and gaming platforms and tools for educators, with companies spanning from early-stage start-ups to publicly traded organizations. Possible career options include educational software developer, instructional designer, IT support specialist, data analyst or UX/UI designer.
Fintech as a Service (FaaS)
PayPal, Mastercard and Fiserv are about to get company. According to a Market Research analysis, the size of the global fintech-as-a-service (Faas) market is anticipated to reach $681.6 billion by 2028, driven by the surge in demand for cloud-based payment, lending, analytics and compliance services in various sectors.
It’s only natural that FaaS will continue to thrive, as businesses continue to prioritize scalability, flexibility, and cost-efficiency, noted Giancarlo Hirsch, managing Director of Glocomms, a search firm for the technology industry.
Additionally, as more companies transition to cloud-native architectures, FaaS is set to play a pivotal role in enabling developers to focus on building features without worrying about infrastructure management.
“We expect to see cloud service providers hiring the most, with startups and mid-sized tech companies also expanding their FaaS teams, with roles like cloud engineers, serverless architects, and DevOps in high demand,” Hirsch noted.
From a career and recruiting perspective, FaaS will offer significant growth opportunities for professionals who are well-versed in cloud computing and serverless architecture. In addition to programming skills, aspiring transitioners should pursue cloud certifications and hands-on experience with FaaS platforms as well as open-source projects. This includes learning to design scalable, event-driven architectures using services that will be critical in the evolving cloud landscape.
Digital Marketing Software
The demand for digital marketing software and other technologies is expected to rise as companies look to drive efficiencies and utilize data and real-time AI to shape the customer journey, explained Darrell Rosenstein, managing partner of search firm Rosenstein Group and creator of the Martalks podcast.
Grand View Research reported that the size of the global market for digital marketing software was estimated at $65.33 billion in 2022; between 2023 and 2030, it will continue to grow at a CAGR of 19.4 percent.
“The cost of customer acquisition is higher than ever, so marketers are trying to learn as much possible about their current and future customers,” Rosenstein added.
Not only is marketing technology a burgeoning field, but when you contribute to a company’s top and bottom-line growth, it increases your value as well as your job security.
Rosenstein is bullish on companies that are developing next generation marketing solutions in the cloud. Companies that have launched cloud-native, API-led solutions built on a microservices architecture are dominating the market and hiring across the board.
Virtualization Software
The need for virtualization software is growing, driving the market from $63.1 billion in 2022 to a staggering $386.8 billion by 2030, according to a study by Market Research. More than 115,000 companies are currently using virtualization software, which is produced by some 394 companies, so job hunters have plenty of options to choose from.
Some of the most in-demand jobs in virtualization software include network/cloud engineer, data architect, software engineer and virtualization engineer.
Robotic Process Automation
Today, robotic process automation (RPA) is helping businesses across a variety of industries automate repetitive and manual tasks, leading to unprecedented efficiency, accuracy and cost savings. It’s no wonder that the global RPA market is expected to increase at a CAGR of 39.9 percent between 2023 and 2030. Best of all, the industry offers strong long-term career potential due to its growing demand.
Some of the biggest players in the market include name brands like SAP, IBM and Microsoft, but don’t overlook up-and-comers like Appian, NICE and Pega or a host of well-funded startups when searching for your next career opportunity. Speaking of careers, some of the “hot” options include developer, architect, analyst and RPA champion.
