Studies from 2023 agree that the university careers with the most demand and the best job future are those in the areas of medicine, technology, engineering, administration and finance.

Aspects ranging from your personal interests to the salary you could receive influence your decision to choose a university degree. But you must also consider factors such as economic investment, the institution where you will study, and key aspects such as labor demand or the future of the sector. 

Beyond the salary, the university degree you choose has to be compatible with your abilities and interests so that you can perform with motivation and efficiency.

Companies are currently looking for candidates whose professional profile has a mix of soft skills, technical skills; and those who are able to adapt to the volatility and uncertainty of the post-pandemic world. 

The job market is going through constant changes and while jobs are being cut in some areas, it is also true that new jobs are being created in others. 

New professional profiles derived from the digitization and automation of processes have emerged —and will continue to appear— for which there are still not enough qualified workers, according to recent studies.

Automation and digitization move in-demand careers

The workforce is automating faster than expected. As an example, the report “The Future of Jobs” from the World Economic Forum ensures that automation will make up to 85 million jobs obsolete by 2025, due to changes in the division of labor between humans and machines. 

The report also clarifies that automation could also generate some 97 million new jobs. Of course, those positions will be for those who best adapt to the new division of labor between humans, machines and algorithms. So continuous learning and updating your skills are key so that you can adapt to the changes that are already taking place in the labor market.

The trend today is to stay in constant learning and focus on university degrees that develop our soft and technical skills to better face the challenges posed by the transformation of work. 

After overcoming the worst figures of the Covid19 pandemic, various organizations and consulting companies have released studies on which are the university degrees with the greatest demand, and which present the best growth prospects for the coming years. 

Most of these investigations agree that a large percentage of job offers are aimed at university careers in: medicine, technology, engineering, administration and finance.

Forbes magazine defined the trends in the labor market for this year, which are a good guide to identify the university degrees with the greatest demand. According to their conclusions, the following five professional areas are expected to be the ones that hire the most staff in the immediate future:

• Health sciences: the pandemic increased the demand for these professionals and this trend is expected to continue.
• Information technology: In particular, there is an increase in the demand for software developers and mobile applications.
• Supply chain management: there is a sustained growth in the recruitment of professionals in logistics-related university degrees including: purchasing managers, distribution managers, logistics analysts, and industrial engineers.
• Financial management: companies are looking for professionals who evaluate expenses and income, to maximize profitability. Forbes estimates that the demand for workers in this field will grow by 15% over the next decade.
• Actuarial and Statistical: The field of data and statistics is also growing. These professionals are capable of assessing risks, which is an increasingly required skill.

Careers with the most demand in Latin America

The pandemic caused the loss of at least 34 million jobs in Latin America and the Caribbean according to reports from the International Labor Organization , but some sectors have already begun to increase their hiring. 

The effects of Covid-19 generated new needs in the technology sector, but above all they caused job offers in the health sector to grow by 91%, according to the report “Jobs on the Rise ” released by LinkedIn in July. 

Medical job postings in the second quarter of this year held two of the top three fastest-growing spots, with nearly four-fold increases over the number posted in the first quarter.

Job posting data for the second quarter of 2022 also indicates that companies view skills development of their current employees as a feasible option to fill positions. 

This is evident in the number of job postings for training supervisors, which increased by almost five times over the first quarter.

Below, we show you the list of job ads that increased the most on LinkedIn. The results come from comparing the number of ads published during the second quarter of 2022 (April 1 – June 30) with respect to those of the first quarter (January 1 – March 31):

• Training supervisor +4.7 times more job offers in Q2 2022 vs. Q1 2022
• Patient Service Representative +3.9 times
• Physiotherapist +3.6 times
• Oracle Specialist +2.9 times
• Brand representative +2.5 times
• Pediatric nurse +2.2 times
• Distribution Specialist +2.2 times
• Delivery driver +2.2 times
• Office coordinator +2.2 times
• Kitchen staff +1.1 times

Talent deficit in ICT university careers

A study by the consultancy NTT Data found that 52% of large companies in Latin America have implemented digitization and automation strategies. This shows how digital transformation has become a necessity in the market, which is why the demand for professionals is growing rapidly, particularly for personnel with skills linked to technology and innovation.

Leaving the changes caused by the pandemic behind, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates that by 2030, 80 % of current jobs would be replaced by university degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

Several studies focused on the Latin American region have reached similar conclusions in the last year. Among them stands out the “ IT Talent: STEM Competitiveness in Latin America ”, prepared by the PageGroup recruiter.

The company calculated that the current deficit of digital talent in the region is 48%, and that by 2025 some 3 million professionals will be needed in STEM careers alone to meet the needs generated by the digital transformation processes in these countries.

Reports on the competitiveness of ICT services in several Latin American countries last year found professional shortages of up to 33,000 in Mexico, 17,000 in Peru, 12,000 in Brazil, 10,000 in Argentina, 9,000 in Chile, and 8,000 in Costa Rica, to name just a few. some. The Colombian Society of Engineers reported in April a shortage of 80,000 professionals just to cover this year’s demand.

The World Economic Forum report agrees with this personnel shortage and expands that it is more acute in emerging professions. 

Asked to rate how easy it is to find skilled employees in a variety of new and strategic jobs, business leaders surveyed consistently cited difficulties hiring: data scientists and analysts, artificial intelligence and machine learning specialists, as well as software and application developers, among others.

The PageGroup study highlights that in recent years Latin America has also represented an important supply of STEM talent for the United States and Europe, since professionals represent lower labor costs for companies in those regions.