Some career tracks may lead to a more prosperous future than others, according to an analysis from Kiplinger. Kiplinger started with a list of 773 popular occupations, and narrowed the choices to the most promising professions by focusing on the projected job growth rate for the next 10 years (from 2017 to 2027); historical job growth rate over the past 10 years; the current number of positions; median pay; and the typical required education. When it came to education, Kiplinger tried to favor jobs that required lower levels of education. Related: 7 insights into Americans' dream jobs "We know that the student loan debt issue is huge in the country right now, and college is becoming increasingly expensive," Kiplinger editor Stacy Rapacon explained to BenefitsPRO sister site ThinkAdvisor. "It's a huge investment of both time and money. We tried to favor jobs that had less of an investment on the front end but could still promise a lucrative career in the future." For Kiplinger's analysis, employment data was provided by Emsi, a labor-market research firm owned by Strada Education. Emsi collects data from dozens of federal, state and private sources, including reports from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and surveys from the U.S. Census Bureau. Overall, the analysis found that the job market is driven by two major themes: advancing technology and the aging population. "On the best list, the way these themes played out is we saw a number of jobs in the tech field as well as in the health care field that really are expected to grow over the next 10 years and earn more money. Both of these fields tend to be more stable employers," Rapacon explained. Personal financial advisor does not make the top 10 cut, but it does come in 25th place on Kiplinger's list. Kiplinger expects this field to experience a 12 percent projected job growth over the next 10 years. "For personal financial advisors, managing personal finances is getting more and more complicated," Rapacon told ThinkAdvisor. "A lot of people are planning their retirements, they're not going to have the luxury of relying on their pension anymore. They need to be more proactive with their finances, more knowledgeable and in better control of what they're doing if they need to retire ever." See the gallery above to find out what the top 10 jobs of the future are. Read more: |

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Emily Zulz

Emily joined the ThinkAdvisor team as a reporter in the summer of 2014. She previously worked as a reporter for The Daily Journal in Kankakee, Illinois for a year and as a reporter and editor for The Daily Eastern News in Charleston, Illinois for two and a half years. Prior to joining ThinkAdvisor, Emily worked on Groupon’s editorial team in Chicago as a fact checker for three years. She graduated cum laude with a BA in journalism from Eastern Illinois University, and she has been the recipient of two journalism awards for her news reporting at daily newspapers.