If you think most Americans finish college, think again.
Going to college is an American rite of passage. But not everyone goes to college, and many students never make it to graduation. Among Americans ages 25 and over, only 38% are college graduates, according to the Education Data Initiative.
A report released in May by the resume-writing service Resume Now identifies 13 careers that offer good pay and long-term stability and that don’t require a college degree. Better still, none of the jobs are likely to be replaced by AI.
The analysis “focused on three or four fears that people have right now,” said Keith Spencer, a career expert at Resume Now. Americans worry about signs of a softening job market. They’re concerned about the cost of college, and whether a degree is still worth it. And employees in many fields fear that AI – or robots, or other nonhuman hands – might sweep in to replace them.
Their fears are not unfounded. One recent survey shows that some service companies in the New York-Northern New Jersey area have scaled back hiring or plan to do so in the next six months because of AI.
Despite the slow creep of automation, many fields still require the human touch. To build out this list, Resume Now found careers that require only a high school diploma, that pay at least $50,000 a year, and that represent growing fields with high-demand skills. The report draws on Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
“They sort of all have some similarities, in terms of the need for significant human interaction,” Spencer said. “Maybe they require manual dexterity in unpredictable environments, or high levels of creativity.”
The list comes in two parts: jobs with relatively low AI risk, and positions with “moderate” AI risk, based on the need for human decision-making, manual labor, personal interactions and other factors.
Some of the jobs listed below require “a level of relevant experience,” Resume Now reports. But none, apparently, requires a college degree.