Managers in Demand

Recently I was asked to speak at a conference on “Management in the High Growth Industries”. One of the pre-prepared questions our panel was asked to address was “Is there a future in management as a career?”

There had been a lot of comment in the media at the time that employees were better off seeking a career as a well-paid specialist rather than aspiring to a management position.

To obtain a quick view on the future demand for managers, I turned to the Department of Labor statistics. In particular, I looked at the figures produced for President's High Growth Job Training Initiative. 

They have identified 15 sectors that fit within the following criteria: (1) they are projected to add substantial numbers of new jobs to the economy or affect the growth of other industries; or (2) they are existing or emerging businesses being transformed by technology and innovation requiring new skill sets for workers.

Using the Bureau of Labor Statistics which projects future trends over a ten year period (currently 2004-2014), a list of the top 50 “In Demand” occupations has been produced. These are ranked using a product of predicted demand x median salaries.

It’s no surprise to see that Registered Nurses and Physicians head up this list. However, there is also overwhelming evidence of the future high demand for managers in these high growth areas.

13 of the top 50 occupations are specifically management jobs. Financial Services Managers have the highest ranking of these, holding the ninth position. Engineering managers in Advanced Manufacturing have the highest predicted median salary - $48 per hour.

The management occupation with the highest predicted need is First Line Manager in the Construction Industry – 209,000 jobs. First Line management accounts for five of the top thirteen management rankings - 693,000 jobs in total.

Management occupations also rank highly in the list of in demand jobs outside of the high growth areas. General and Operations Managers are ranked third in the list. First Line Managers of Office Support Workers, Real Estate and Property Managers and C.E.O’s  are all ranked in the top twenty.

There is no doubt that that the future looks bright for those seeking a management career. Two questions remain:

• Do employees want to take on the responsibilities and stress of a management job?

• How are we going to train these new managers?  Many of the industries listed have no great history of effective management training. The firms within these high growth/emerging industries are often small or medium sized enterprises with little resource for training. High growth enterprises are characterized by flat management structures offering little opportunity for these managers to learn on the job.