Headliner Impacts: Technology and STEM
Technology continues to advance at an unprecedented rate, and the ripple effects of widespread adoption are impacting projections around physical labor-based roles. Overall employment in production occupations is expected to decline as robotics or automated machinery take over the repetitive, low-skill tasks on the operations floor. However, BLS projects 963,400 openings each year related to production occupation backfilling.
- Aircraft structure, surfaces, rigging, and system assemblers ($67k average annual wage): 15.2% decline in projected employment percentage change
- Engine and other machine assemblers ($56k average annual wage): 22.1% decline
- Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials ($36k average annual wage): 18.0% decline
As technology develops, so does the reliance on specialized skills. Several high-paying technical and scientific roles (computer research scientists and marine engineers) significantly exceeded their projected employment paths, suggesting stronger demand for specialized expertise than initially forecasted.
- Computer and information research scientists ($194k average annual wage): Actual 2024 employment 85% higher than 2022 projection path suggested
- Marine engineers and naval architects ($109k average annual wage): 91% above expected, reflecting strong maritime/offshore demand
Other Technology Roles Continue to Pace as Expected
Statisticians, those who develop or apply mathematical or statistical theory and methods to turn data into usable information, experienced the largest downward revision—from +30.1% growth projected to +9.2%, a decrease of 20.9 percentage points. Employment fell from 1.0k to 0.7k (30% decline) between 2022-2024 and saw cooled growth expectations.
Routine data processing, some modeling, and reporting tasks can be increasingly automated, potentially limiting the need for growth in the core "Statistician" role, while still upholding projected necessity.
Operations Research Analysts, who develop and interpret information that assists management with operations-related decision-making (supply optimal time, costs, logistics networks, etc.), saw a slight growth increase in projected employment change, from 17.65% to 19.57%, despite the number of employed individuals under this title seeing a decrease from 2022 to 2024. This decrease reflects the short-term slowdown or restructuring in manufacturing, but the long-term growth rate (percentage) increased because the base number of jobs shrank, emphasizing a strong projected need for these analysts despite the recent dip.
Buyers and Administrative Roles Show Resiliency
The notable shifts across high-wage occupations were felt in executive offices. On the side of growth, the increase in buyers and purchasing agents may be due to the rise in tariffs and re-shoring supply chains (from –8% decline in 2022-2032 to a projected growth rate of 6.7% in the latest data). These multi-year projects with nearly constant change in 2025 go beyond prediction modeling and have increased reliance and time spent managing products needed for operations.
The biggest positive swings are in administrative and secretarial positions, with Executive Secretaries showing the largest improvement (+20.3 points) from -23.5% decline to -3.2%. This larger occupation (18.8k in 2022, 16.4k in 2024) declined 12.8% between 2022-2024. These roles proved more resilient to automation than initially projected. Executive secretaries and the overall administrative assistant category are being cut as automation and software advancement progress, but at a lesser scale than predicted for 2022-2032.
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants followed the same path with significant reductions in projected job decreases, from a 21.6% decline to only an 8% decline for 2024-3024 estimates.
Process Optimization Jobs Continue to Decline in Projections
Many traditional manufacturing production jobs on the plant floor, which are often mid-wage manufacturing roles ($40k-$60K) showed the most volatile projection changes.
- Engine and other machine assemblers ($56k average annual wage): -22.1%
- Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials ($36k average annual wage): -18%
- Structural metal fabricators and fitters ($53k average annual wage): -17.4%
- Tool and die makers ($65k average annual wage): -11.7%
Notably there were some mixed signals—chemical equipment operators improved significantly (+10.1 points) while machine feeders and offbearers saw major deterioration (from -0.5 to -14.7.
With over a million unfilled trade jobs and salaries on the rise, skilled tradespeople are in high demand. New laws, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law expected to create 345,000 new trade jobs, coupled with rising enrollment in trade schools, are expanding the opportunities to grow a reliable career in the trades for those that do enter manufacturing, as supervisor and management level roles grow.
Overall, projections continue to reflect the not-so-secret impact of what’s happening around the industry. Skilled talent shortages to accompany automation and expansion, as well as entry-level roles declining.
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