Top 20 In Demand Occupations
As competition for highly skilled workers heats up across the country, the importance of identifying workforce needs is greater than ever. In 2017, the LVGEA released a Workforce Blueprint to highlight in-demand occupations across seven target industries. The research document's supply and demand analysis was updated in the 2019 Workforce Blueprint. Given the COVID-19's impact on Southern Nevada's economy, the 2022 Workforce Blueprint investigates how recent economic shifts impacted the region's workforce. The document identifies where demand has shifted at the occupational level and any gaps between workforce demand and supply.
The 2022 Workforce Blueprint is designed to be an innovative, data-driven roadmap to help build the workforce employers need in Southern Nevada. The Blueprint is designed to accomplish the following goals:
- Identify Southern Nevada’s current and future workforce needs
- Identify education and training capacity to meet workforce needs along with corresponding gaps and/or surpluses
- Publish a Top 100 list of in-demand occupations
- Identify how economic shifts due to the global pandemic had affected the regional workforce since the Workforce Blueprint 2.0 was published in 2019
- Create a Workforce Report Card with annual workforce performance indicators to monitor progress
- Provide a series of stakeholder recommendations for regional leaders to implement
- Focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to drive positive economic change
The 2022 Workforce Blueprint was created in collaboration with Workforce Connections, Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development, Vegas Chamber, Henderson Chamber of Commerce, Urban Chamber of Commerce, and Latin Chamber of Commerce.
In Demand Occupations: Demand vs. Supply
The final step in determining how existing postsecondary programs correlate to forecasted demand involved allocating graduates, by degree program, across each occupation to determine an annual "workforce pipeline." This illustrates where gaps - large and small - may exist relative to ongoing employment needs.
Some occupations identified through this demand ranking process are more general in nature, and thus do not offer close alignment to specific programs. In such instances, graduates were not included for these occupations - these occupations are noted with a blank space in the 'gap/surplus' column in the table below.
Additionally, there are significant alternative training programs throughout the region that contribute heavily to the workforce pipeline for some occupations. Because verifiable graduate or computer data for these programs are not readily available, the pipeline inputs for these occupations is represented by an asterisk in the table below.
| Ranking | High Demand Occupation | Up/Down from 2019 | Annual Openings w/ Forecasted Demand | Annual Pipeline | Forecasted Workforce Gap/Surplus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Software Developers, Applications | Equal | 462 | 63 | -399 |
| 2 | Software Developers, Systems Software | Up | 101 | 17 | -84 |
| 3 | Civil Engineers | Up | 175 | 38 | -137 |
| 4 | Managers, All Others | Down | 1,126 | * | |
| 5 | Veterinarians | Up | 45 | * | |
| 6 | Electronics Engineers, Except Computer | Up | 67 | 11 | -56 |
| 7 | Environmental Scientists & Specialists, Including Health | Up | 45 | 7 | -38 |
| 8 | General & Operations Managers | Down | 1,635 | 321 | -1314 |
| 9 | Aerospace Engineers | Up | 35 | 0 | -35 |
| 10 | Information Security Analysts | Up | 56 | 21 | -35 |
| 11 | Nurse Practitioners | Up | 47 | 29 | -18 |
| 12 | Computer Systems Analyst | Up | 153 | 1 | -152 |
| 13 | Business Operations Specialists, All Other | Down | 585 | * | |
| 14 | Architects, Except Landscape & Naval | Up | 48 | 21 | -27 |
| 15 | Environmental Engineers | Up | 34 | 8 | -26 |
| 16 | Respiratory Therapists | Down | 98 | 67 | -31 |
| 17 | Architectural & Engineering Managers | Down | 53 | 0 | -53 |
| 18 | Computer User Support Specialists | Down | 317 | 127 | -190 |
| 19 | Medical & Health Services Manager | Up | 240 | 137 | -103 |
| 20 | Physician Assistants | Up | 36 | 20 | -16 |
| 21 | Computer Occupations, All Other | Up | 217 | 123 | -94 |
| 22 | Registered Nurses | Down | 1588 | 639 | -949 |
| 23 | Computer & Information Systems Managers | Up | 162 | 47 | -115 |
| 24 | Financial Managers | Down | 562 | 125 | -437 |
| 25 | Medical Scientists, Except Epidemiologists | Up | 18 | 22 | 4 |
| 26 | Occupational Health & Safety Specialists | Up | 48 | 5 | -43 |
| 27 | Environmental Science & Protection Technicians, Including Health | Up | 55 | 0 | -55 |
| 28 | Construction Managers | Down | 576 | 42 | -534 |
| 29 | Electrical Engineers | Down | 44 | 14 | -30 |
| 30 | Logisticians | Up | 40 | 3 | -37 |
| 31 | Trans., Storage & Distribution Managers | Up | 92 | 14 | -78 |
| 32 | Compliance Officers | Down | 155 | * | |
| 33 | Computer Network Support Specialists | Up | 160 | 171 | 11 |
| 34 | Physical Therapist | Up | 102 | 41 | -61 |
| 35 | Mechanical Engineers | Up | 34 | 26 | -8 |
| 36 | Veterinary Technologists & Technicians | Up | 67 | 0 | -67 |
| 37 | Engineers, All Others | Down | 35 | 44 | 9 |
| 38 | Computer & Information Research Scientists | Up | 3 | 0 | -3 |
| 39 | Airline Pilots, Copilots & Flight Engineers | Up | 190 | * | |
| 40 | Operations Research Analysts | Up | 19 | * | |
| 41 | Sales Engineers | Up | 8 | * | |
| 42 | Lawyers | Up | 388 | 4 | -384 |
| 43 | Physicians & Surgeons, All Other | Up | 95 | 106 | 11 |
| 44 | Market Research Analysts & Marketing Specialists | Down | 395 | 105 | -290 |
| 45 | Management Analysts | Down | 430 | 35 | -395 |
| 46 | Health & Safety Engineers, Except Mining Safety | Up | 14 | * | |
| 47 | Occupational Therapists | Up | 61 | 23 | -38 |
| 48 | Computer Network Architects | Up | 52 | 5 | -47 |
| 49 | Web Developers | Down | 71 | 38 | -33 |
| 50 | Speech-Language Pathologists | Up | 75 | 22 | -53 |
Projected Job Growth by 2028 by Target Industry
One of the primary components of the Workforce Blueprint involves establishing aspirational occupational growth targets for each of LVGEA’s target industry clusters, which then informs specific growth targets at the occupational level.
Each aspirational growth factor used in determining these projections leverages DETR’s 10-year forecast as a benchmark for growth. Growth factors were selected in close coordination with LVGEA senior staff, based on known data and current economic trends. These factors realign long-term occupational demand captured in the pre-pandemic forecast around the current economic growth outlook for the coming years.
The resulting growth factors are presented in the form of scaling factors for the 10-year DETR growth rate from the reference forecast along with 2019 actual employment, which provides the most recent benchmark prior to the pandemic-related distortions of 2020 and 2021. These data focus exclusively on the region’s target industries and jobs linked to one or multiple target industries.
| Target Industry | 2019 Employment | DETR 2028 Employment Forecast | Aspirational Growth Factor | 2028 Aspirational Employment Target | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General & Advanced Manufacturing | 25,583 | 27,096 | 1.2 | 32,515 | ||
| Creative Industries | 15,532 | 18,020 | 1.1 | 19,822 | ||
| Information & Communication Technologies | 26,406 | 32,737 | 1.1 | 36,010 | ||
| Transportation & Logistics Technologies | 33,599 | 38,961 | 1.3 | 50,649 | ||
| Business & Financial Services | 139,641 | 170,189 | 1.1 | 187,208 | ||
| Healthcare Services | 80,794 | 96,492 | 1.0 | 96,492 | ||
| Clean Technologies | 21,304 | 25,719 | 1.1 | 28,291 |
Workforce Report Card
This report card contains performance indicators across three distinct categories with clear connectivity to workforce development: K-12 education, postsecondary education, and talent and training. Initial data points for each indicator provide a clear foundation upon which the community can track and measure performance toward workforce development goals, both in quantity and quality.
The report card should be updated regularly by LVGEA and its partners, with progress and movement across indicators used as a basis for implementing or funding new programs, adjusting curricula, or other actions that help ensure a high-quality workforce that meets the continued and growing needs of the regional economy.
K-12
AP Test Passage: 46.59% Southern Nevada | 56% National
ACT Scores: 17.24 Southern Nevada | 20.7 National
Talent and Training
Average Wages (Associate Degree or Less) $27.03 Southern Nevada | $21.51 National
Net Migration: +39,377 Nevada | +9,279 National
Postsecondary Education
Associate Degree-Holding Population: 8.5% Southern Nevada | 8.6% National
Bachelor's+ Degree-Holding Population: 25.6% Southern Nevada | 33.1% National
Methodology
The methodology used for this analysis deviated slightly from prior Workforce Blueprints to reflect the changing contexts and economic landscape and to incorporate different data not previously available.
The purpose and outcome of the analysis, though, remains the same: to develop a ranking of the high-demand occupations for the Southern Nevada region that can help inform the work of economic and workforce development organizations, and to identify needs for reinforcing, refining, or expanding training and educational programs that can proactively meet industry and economic needs.
Questions?
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