The 2018 Report on the Nation’s “Best Jobs” is Dominated by the Technology & Construction Industries

Indeed.com recently released their 2018 report on “The Best Jobs in the United States” and in a set of results unsurprising to Seattleites who have become accustomed to the influence of two particular industries in recent years, the technology and construction industries dominated the list. Though Indeed recognizes that there is a confluence of factors that contribute to what makes a job ideal, they narrowed categories down to two factors: 1) jobs with a minimum baseline salary of $75K and 2) jobs that have seen significant growth on Indeed.com within the past few years.

While jobs within the tech industry are still prevalent, they were less dominant than the previous year, as jobs within the construction and healthcare industries experienced a more weighted presence. There were a striking sixteen jobs on the list that were not named last year, and project manager, which was ranked 19th last year, shot to the top spot with ‘an impressive 277% growth in job postings between 2014 and 2017.” The growth in construction jobs can be attributed to the industry’s fastest year-over-year growth, with increasing spending on new development and construction projects.

The influence of the construction and tech industries in Seattle is undeniable, as it seems as though there is a new announcement of tech office space nearly every day. In the past week alone, Facebook which has doubled its workforce in just two years, began moving into new office space in South Lake Union; while Google leased a building in Fremont that formerly housed the Tableau headquarters. And despite announcing a second headquarter location to be announced sometime this year, Amazon continues to expand its Seattle footprint, recently announcing that they increased their projections to approximately 14 million square feet of office space in the city once all projects currently under construction are completed.

Though the crane count in the Emerald City has tapered off slightly in recent months, at about 45 cranes as of January 2018, it still led the U.S. in crane count, with a number of multi-family and transportation projects to improve the city’s infrastructure currently in progress.