Payscale says these in-demand jobs will stay hot in 2024

Ten jobs that posted major wage growth last year will remain hot moving further into 2024, according to Payscale.

For 2023, customer service assistant manager, hairdresser, master plumber, automotive body repairer, job coach and audio/visual technician were some of the roles that the compensation software company identified in its recent End-of-Year Report as being the most in-demand by wage growth. Others included animator, fitness coach, roofer and general manager, according to Payscale.

The rates of growth that those top-ten jobs saw in their median pay in 2023 ranged from 18% to 24%, with customer service assistant manager showing the largest year-over-year increase, Payscale found. Master plumber, meanwhile, raked in the most out of the positions, taking home median yearly pay of $82,700.

The compensation software firm also noted white-collar “knowledge” worker jobs did not make appearances among the “top in-demand jobs” list dominated by trade and self-employment positions. It determined those 10 jobs and their order using information received through a survey of over 770,000 people with jobs.

“We expect the jobs on this list to remain hot” as 2024 continues, Payscale Chief People Officer Lexi Clarke told FOX Business on Wednesday. 

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“I think it is reflective of some of the changes that we’re seeing just in the industry,” she continued. “One of the things that we talk about a lot – and that we have for the last especially year or so – is this growing tension between employees and employers, as we think about that power dynamic back and forth.”

Trends like job coaches and roles suited for self-employment that were reflected in Payscale’s list “will continue as we look into 2024,” Clarke projected. 

Self-employment has seen gains since the pandemic as people experienced layoffs or decided to strike out on their own, she noted. 

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“And we’ll see that candidates and employees are continually looking for something that they can mold around their life instead of molding their life to fit around their job,” Payscale’s chief people officer also told FOX Business. “That is a trend we’ve seen on the rise over the last few years since the beginning of the pandemic, but I think we’ll continue to see trends like that emerge as we get deeper into 2024.”

Clarke suggested workers leaning into self employment and “work-life fit” reflected the job market still being driven by employees and job-seekers despite ongoing economic uncertainty.

Separately, in a report put out in late July, Payscale found that, overall, U.S. employers had 3.8% base salary increases on average for their workers included in their budgets for 2024. 

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The U.S. Department of Labor said early last month that the country’s unemployment rate in November was hovering around 3.7%. 

On Wednesday morning, the agency reported job openings in November totalled 8.79 million, as reported by FOX Business.