Take a look at the newest jobs listed in the Occupational Information Network released by the United States Department of Labor.  All of these positions have high starting salaries on average and grow as the fields continue to develop.

Health Care

The nursing field is constantly growing and expanding.  A new field known as nursing informatics is a specialty that integrates nursing science, computer science, and information science to manage and communicate data, information, knowledge and wisdom in the nursing practice.  These informatics nurse specialists are registered nurses trained in graduate level informatics.  Stacey Prince of the American Nurses Association says, “Most often they are liaisons between clinicians and information and computer science people.  These jobs are growing because information technology is now becoming a major tool in health-care settings.”  Anesthesiologist assistant is a position that is always growing.   They work under the direction of licensed and qualified anesthesiologists in hospitals and are responsible for performing preoperative tasks, support therapy, recovery room care and intensive care support.  According to the American Medical Association, anesthesiologist assistants start at $90,000.  A master’s degree in nursing and a certification by the National Commission for Certification of Anesthesiologist Assistants is required.

Green Energy

Green jobs are rising in popularity mostly due to the federal government’s active role in building a green economy.  The newest green job to look out for is a wind farm engineer.  Wind farm engineers work on the performance of turbines and overall performance of the wind farm and oversee all aspects of construction and mechanical development.  The average salary for this position is $80,000 and a bachelor’s degree in engineering with a focus in construction, civil or structural engineering is usually required.  However, some technical colleges are now offering a specific degree in wind farm engineering.  Another green job to look out for is solar thermal technician.  These technicians design, develop, install and maintain solar thermal systems used to heat water and produce energy.  They work in different fields such as renewable energy plants, companies that install solar panels for domestic use, construction companies, consulting firms and hotel chains.  An associate’s or bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering is required and the salary typically starts at $40,000 or $20 per hour.

Business and Management

As new technologies continue to expand the horizons of the professional world, the roles of information technology professionals continue to expand and separate into different specialties.  One of these new positions is business continuity planners who are responsible for scaling information technology as a company grows.  The minimum education requirement is a bachelor’s degree in business, management or disaster management.  According to salary.com, business continuity planners start at $100,000.  In addition, spa managers are growing in popularity as the interest in becoming healthy continues to grow.  Spa managers work in resorts, health clubs and other facilities offering sports and wellness activities. Although a degree is not required, a high school diploma or GED along with five years of managing experience is usually required.

Education

Many people are making the right decision to go back to school and online colleges offer a convenient option.  Therefore, distance learning coordinators are becoming in demand.  They prepare and run online courses at colleges, trade schools and secondary schools.  A master’s degree in instructional design, curriculum design and curriculum development is usually a requirement along with a solid understanding of web-based technologies.

Entertainment & Media

As the $9 billion interactive entertainment industry matures, so does its specialty positions such as user experience designer.  These designers focus solely on improving user interaction of video games.  A college degree is not mandatory for this position.  However, strong computer programming, computer engineering, software development, computer animation, graphic design and computer graphics skills are required.  In addition, social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook have become so popular that the professionals in the public relations now use the growing social networking technologies to their advantage.  An entry-level blogger can earn about $20 per hour while a social media manager can earn an annual salary of about $50,000.  A director of social media can earn an annual salary of $70,000 or more.  A bachelor’s degree is required along with strong writing abilities and experience in online marketing and public relations.