WASHINGTON — Demand for jobs in the D.C. area outpaced the nation for the first time in three years in 2015.
“There is a bright picture emerging,” said Council of Governments Executive Director Chuck Bean.
The Trends in Workforce Demand Report, from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, also suggests that if your child has yet to choose a career path, there’s a good future in building computer skills.
“Our report found that five of the … 10 occupations most in demand in the region are high-tech, computer-related: software developers, information security analysts and the like,” Bean said.
The five firms with the greatest number of area job postings in 2015 also are in advanced industries.
Bean says there’s no surprise among the other in-demand professions rounding out the top 10: managers, sales representatives and nurses. Most of the jobs pay well, too.
“Nine of the 10 occupations exceed the average annual wage of all the occupations in our region. The only one of the 10 that doesn’t is retail, which is number seven out of the 10 in most demand,” Bean said.
The median wage of the most in-demand jobs is more than $100,000. In 2015, the average annual wage in the metro D.C. region was $65,910.
Bean warns that the way to sustain a strong job market in the region is to become less reliant on employment related to the federal government.
“The reason we were in the doldrums here in the region in 2013-2014 was because of sequestration. We actually lost $10 billion in federal procurement just in our region,” Bean said.
“About 40 percent of our region’s economy is somehow related to the federal government, and we need to diversify.”
Bean and other experts believe one area ripe for growth here is exporting high tech services; for example, in bio-tech and cyber security.
Right now, 6 percent of the region’s economy is based on exports. Bean says growing exports by just 10 percent would mean an additional $2.7 billion in the region a year.
“And that’s a lot of the good jobs we’re talking about,” Bean said.
