
Get hired this year: 2021's fastest-growing jobs, and the skills you need to get them Published on Jan 12, 2021
Share
LinkedIn
Facebook
Twitter
The COVID-19 pandemic has permanently changed the jobs landscape so understanding what comes next is top of mind for employers and job seekers alike as the global labor market begins to recover. Today, following our joint commitment with Microsoft to help get 25 million people back to work, LinkedIn announced new insights that shed light on what's next as we enter the new year.
To help support the millions of people trying to get back into the workforce, we looked at the fastest-growing jobs of the past year and at courses and other tools that can help job seekers take the next step.
There is demand for workers from every background As we do at the start of each year, we're taking a look at the most in-demand jobs in the U.S. But this year, we're also looking at how things have changed over the past year.
Here are the top five fastest-growing job trends based on LinkedIn data over the past year, each reflecting a collection of closely-related roles where demand is expanding quickly. Read more about these and 10 additional trends from LinkedIn editor, Andrew Seaman.
This is based on an analysis of jobs data by YoY growth and quantity from April-October 2020.
These are the top 5 Jobs on the Rise right now 1. Professionals on the frontlines of e-commerce
As many sheltered in place this year, retailers and logistics companies onboarded thousands of e-commerce workers to help get products from the store into the hands of customers. Hiring for these roles grew 73% year-over-year - and that demand continues with over 400,000 open jobs right now.
Top Job Titles: Driver, Supply Chain Associate, Package Handler, Personal Shopper | Skills: Time Management, Customer Service, Leadership | Top Locations Hiring: Chicago, New York City, Washington, D.C. | Education: 70% of hires have an Associates Degree or higher | Salary Range: $42,000 - $56,000 | Remote job availability: Low
2. Loan and mortgage experts
The combination of historically low interest rates and the rollout of the Paycheck Protection Program loans has kept loan experts busy this year - and sent many companies on the hunt for even more. Hiring for these jobs in 2020 increased nearly 59% from 2019. For people looking to work from home, roughly a quarter of loan officer job postings mention remote work options.
Top job titles: Underwriter, Mortgage Loan Officer, Escrow Officer, Loan Closer | Skills: Risk Management, Customer Service, Credit Analysis | Top Locations Hiring: New York City, Dallas, Chicago | Education: 67% of hires have an Associates Degree or higher | Median Salary: $43,700 - $60,000 | Remote job availability: High
3. Health care supporting staff
The coronavirus pandemic caused a sudden and sustained need for doctors and nurses, but it also created the same demand for the people who support health care professionals. These people help usher patients through the health care system, keep records in order for doctors and much more. Since 2019, hiring for these positions has increased more than 34%. (25 titles)
Top job titles: Health Care Assistant, Pharmacy Technician, Dental Assistant, Home Health Aide | Skills: Patient Education, Data Entry, Physician Relations | Top Locations Hiring: New York City, Boston, Chicago | Education: 82% of hires have an Associates Degree or higher | Median Salary: $65,300 - $106,000 | Remote job availability: Low
4. Business development and sales professionals
Businesses were tasked with quickly adapting to an uncertain world and economy. While some jobs were lost, others that could help bottom lines and help businesses navigate through the pandemic were added. Hiring for these roles grew more than 45% between 2020 and 2019.
Top job titles: Sales Consultant, Sales Operations Assistant, Inbound Sales Specialist, Strategic Advisor | Skills: Customer Retention, Sales Process, Team Building | Top Locations Hiring: New York City, Denver, Atlanta | Education: 79% of hires have an Associates Degree or higher | Median Salary: $43,300 - $105,000 | Remote job availability: Low
5. Experts in workplace diversity
Protests sparked by the police-involved shootings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor caused organizations around the world to reckon with systemic racism and a lack of diversity in positions of power. Companies - large and small - turned to diversity experts who could help them bring new voices into their organizations. Hiring for these roles increased more than 90% since 2019.
Top job titles: Diversity Manager, Diversity Officer, Head of Diversity, Diversity Coordinator | Skills: Community Outreach, Teaching, Organizational Development | Top Locations Hiring: New York City, San Francisco, Chicago | Education: 91% of hires have an Associates Degree or higher | Median Salary: $72,900 - $97,000 | Remote job availability: Low
The courses helping professionals get hired now Skills can be the boost you need to get your next job. Of the millions of professionals who got hired last year, these are the top five hard and soft skill courses they watched before landing that new role. Many corresponded to in demand and fastest-growing jobs, and the courses to learn them are available for free right now. Listing these skills will also make you more discoverable to hiring managers.
Top five hard skills (and free courses to learn them)
Software development
Python for Data Science Essential Training
Programming Foundations: Object-Oriented Design
Programming Foundations: Algorithms
Project management
Cert Prep: Scrum Master
Cert Prep: PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)
Data analysis
SQL Essential Training (2019)
Data Science & Analytics Career Paths & Certifications: First Steps
Six Sigma: Green Be
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
23/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/06/2026
Multifaceted Growth Executive Brings 20+ Years of Experience Leading Organizations Across Tech and M&E
Imagine Communications today announced the appointment ...
23/06/2026
Australians in Film and Screen Australia's talent development initiative UNT...
23/06/2026
Visual Productions Unveils RdmRelay2 Four-channel Relay Control at InfoComm 2026
Brie Clayton June 22, 2026
0 Comments
New Relay Solution Combines DMX, ...
23/06/2026
SMPTE Makes Its Standards Freely Accessible, Opening Standards Library to the Gl...
23/06/2026
Newly identified molecule strengthens the eye's response to damage in retinal disease Scripps Research discovery finds that restoring the naturally occurrin...
22/06/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
22/06/2026
Cosm has announced the appointment of David Ho as Chief Legal Officer, a newly created executive role reporting to President and CEO Jeb Terry. Ho will oversee ...
22/06/2026
Warner Bros. Discovery and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have announced the developm...
22/06/2026
Daktronics has completed an audio control system upgrade at Petco Park in San Di...
22/06/2026
Accelerate Media has named John Willi as President and announced the launch of the Accelerate Sports Network (ASN), a prep sports media and streaming platform c...
22/06/2026
All Women's Sports Network (AWSN) and 3XBA (3 3 Basketball Association) have announced live television coverage of the annual 3XBA tournament on Friday, Jun...
22/06/2026
OWL AI has announced the appointment of Jay Prasad as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors. Prasad succeeds Josh Gwyther, who has served...
22/06/2026
CP Communications delivered RF video and audio support for TNT's Inside the NBA at the 2026 NBA Finals, providing main show coverage in San Antonio and ea...
22/06/2026
Polymarket has announced a partnership with GRID, an official esports data platf...
22/06/2026
As sports venues continue to evolve into more video-centric, fan-engagement-driv...
22/06/2026
As the regional sports production scene shifts toward streaming, this Texan helps lead the engineering behind Victory+'s growing live platform...
22/06/2026
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
the memories of your elders [are] a scaffolding for you to build your identity on - and t...
22/06/2026
New hyper-resolution analyser EQ revealed
CEDAR Audio's all-new Icons plug-in series has just gained its newest member, Blade. Described by the compan...
22/06/2026
Turn any live input into a cinematic soundscape
Designed for use in the studio and on stage, Sampleson's latest creation is capable of taking any audio ...
22/06/2026
Adds guitar strings to Eurorack rigs
ADDAC System are renowned for their weird and wonderful synth designs, and their line-up includes plenty of gear that...
22/06/2026
FIFA World Cup 2026 fever grows, as more than one third of Australians tune in ...
22/06/2026
In our latest blog, Tim Pearson explores NAGRA Venturi, the new streaming security solution for the AI era from NAGRAVISION. Designed to aggregate and analyze ...
22/06/2026
Expanded integrations give advertisers access to distinct contextual signals acr...
22/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/06/2026
Xilica today announced the release of Dynamic Voice Lift, a new feature in Xilica Designer v4.12 that brings adaptive speech reinforcement to large meeting spac...
22/06/2026
Telecom operators have seen remarkable returns from using generative AI to automate network management, customer care and back-office operations. Most of that i...
22/06/2026
Monday 22 June 2026
Official trailer released for Katie Price: Nothing to Hide,...
22/06/2026
The next era of AI will not be defined by compute alone. Its growth will be dete...
22/06/2026
Mission, Vision and Veritas - new Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) supercom...
22/06/2026
At the ISC conference running in Hamburg this week, NVIDIA is introducing new so...
22/06/2026
For the past two years, the U.S. National Science Foundation's National Arti...
22/06/2026
JUPITER, Europe's first exascale supercomputer at Germany's Forschungszentrum J lich, runs on NVIDIA Grace Hopper Superchips and NVIDIA Quantum-X800 Inf...
21/06/2026
To call the 2026 FIFA World Cup a big undertaking would be a big understatement....
21/06/2026
New series now live on Udemy
Regular SOS contributor and Cubase workshop columnist John Walden has just released a new Cubase video course that is now avail...
21/06/2026
Hot tubs sit at about 38 to 40 degrees Celsius, warm enough that most people can only soak for about 15 minutes. NVIDIA's newest AI servers can run their co...
21/06/2026
Sunday 21 June 2026
Sky announces immersive documentary series The Wargame
The Wargame first looks
ZIP (2MB)
Sky today confirms the commission of The Wargam...
20/06/2026
New add-on creates doubles & vocal stacks
IK Multimedia's latest ReSing add-on kits the innovative software out with the ability to automatically genera...
20/06/2026
What exactly is Apogee Control V3?
Control V3 is a new mixer application that controls Apogee interfaces. The new hit feature is that V3 finally allows for...
19/06/2026
Split compound eases operational challenges at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club...
19/06/2026
North Carolina, Oklahoma meet in the best-of-three Finals as ESPN leans into spe...