Why in-demand, no-college jobs are going unfilled

What you probably already know: While office jobs these days are getting harder to come by, there is a segment of the job market that’s hot — white hot — and many employers in those sectors cannot find the workers they need. President Trump has stated that his tariff policies will revitalize domestic manufacturing jobs, but that process will take years, likely decades, to achieve. Meanwhile, millions of other jobs in health care, information technology, and other industries are going unfilled. The Wall Street Journal this week took a look at the jobs that have room for upward growth, don’t require a college degree, and can pay starting wages in the high-five figures. Basically, the kinds of jobs that used to be available in manufacturing before much of it moved overseas.

Why? Around 72% of the 6.2 million job openings in 2024 that required less than an associate degree were in occupations with labor shortages, such as radiation therapists, nuclear technicians, and air-traffic controllers. Many tend to be recession-proof, and demand for these roles is only increasing. So why aren’t there more people to fill these positions? The answer comes down to the haphazard way many people choose their career paths and gaps in skills matching. Picking a career is often the result of right-place-right-time, initiative, resources, and connections — a fragmented system that leaves millions of unfilled jobs. There’s also a disconnect between schools and the workforce, with the former not knowing which skills local companies need most. Additionally, the overall share of the population participating in the workforce is slowly shrinking as it ages, even though more Americans are in the workforce than before the pandemic.

What it means: This mismatch can cause many people to get stuck in low-paying jobs without any upward growth opportunities, often after paying for expensive training or credentials. Discovering better-paying occupations with growth potential is also a matter of searching the internet using the right terms or hearing about them by word of mouth. Robert Espinoza, chief executive of the National Skills Coalition, told the Wall Street Journal that what’s needed is “a coordinated career-navigation system.” With a strong labor market in play and student loan debt rising 66% over the past 10 years to $1.77 trillion, fewer people are choosing the four-year-degree route. Career and workforce training programs offer alternative routes for fresh high school graduates or those eager to climb the economic ladder out of retail and hospitality jobs.

What happens now? The Burning Glass Institute, a think tank that analyzes labor-market data, offers a potential solution for improving workforce development: a six-step framework that aims to align the interests of workers, employers, schools, and community leaders through data-driven actionable insights, such as helping schools better understand local skills gaps so they can offer programs that funnel students straight through to jobs. One such program at LaGuardia Community College trains people to sterilize surgical instruments, which can lead to an entry-level job earning around $50,000 to $70,000 a year and a springboard to six-figure salaries in radiology or surgical tech.