Openings Every Year

BLS projects employment for about 800 occupations over ten years. For each, it estimates annual openings: the average number of positions that will need to be filled each year from new jobs (growth) plus replacement of workers who leave the occupation or the labour force.

Growth and replacement

Replacement is usually the larger number. Even an occupation that is not growing has openings every year as people retire, move up, or change fields. The skilled trades have many older workers, so replacement is a major driver.

Examples (rounded, 2023–33 projections)

• Electricians: about 80,000 openings a year.
• Nursing assistants: well over 100,000 a year.
• Carpenters, plumbers and pipefitters, HVAC/R technicians, welders, automotive service technicians: tens of thousands each.

Exact figures are kept in the museum data file and refreshed with each BLS projections release.

Local numbers

National projections are a starting point. State labour-market agencies publish regional projections; a student in Manatee or Sarasota County should check the Florida numbers and talk to local employers and unions.

Try it

The infographic's visitor question is a simple rate problem: if a city employs 1,000 electricians and about 10 percent leave the occupation each year, the city needs roughly 100 new electricians a year just to stay even, before any growth. That is the arithmetic behind apprenticeship recruiting.

Sources

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2023–2033; Occupational Outlook Handbook; Florida Department of Commerce labour-market projections.