Indeed’s list of the Best Jobs in the United States for 2018 is still loaded with tech titles, but construction work has made an interesting push this year. And for anyone who sees the cranes dominating the skyline in cities like Seattle, the tech boom and construction boom clearly go hand in hand.
The No. 1 job on the list is commercial project manager, with an average base salary of $81,023. The title, which was No. 19 last year, has seen a 277 percent jump in the number of postings on the job search site from 2014 to 2017.
Tech roars back in the next three spots with high-paying jobs including full stack developer ($111,000), computer vision engineer ($131,000), and machine learning engineer ($136,000). That last one shot up from No. 17 last year, and likely reflects the increased emphasis on work around artificial intelligence and robotics. The title “data scientist” cooled a little this year, falling from a No. 2 ranking to eighth.
Tech jobs dominated the 2017 list, with seven of the top 10 titles.
Indeed identifies “best jobs” with two criteria: salary (jobs with a baseline salary of at least $75,000) and abundance of opportunity (jobs which have seen the most growth on Indeed since 2014).
Sixteen of the 25 jobs weren’t even on 2017’s list. Soaring construction spending has led to that sector reporting the fastest job growth year over year, with office construction in particular experiencing a revival, according to Indeed.
“Last year, this list was dominated by jobs in the tech sector, with software engineer and developer roles coming out on top,” said Indeed SVP Paul D’Arcy in a statement. “While these roles are still at the top of our list, it is interesting to see a strong showing by construction jobs that were completely absent last year.”
