Good morning.

Thanks for continuing to spend a few minutes of your workday with us.

Keep voting. Keep replying. And keep forwarding Still Monday to people who might enjoy it.

Preferably during company time.

Today we're looking at careers.

Specifically, the ones career day forgot to mention.

Let's get to work.

For a long time, the respectable career advice was fairly predictable.

Get a degree.

Find an office.

Acquire laptop.

Attend meetings until retirement.

The labor market has begun complicating that plan.

In August, the U.S. information sector lost 23,000 jobs.

Manufacturing added 16,000.

Construction also grew.

And a new wave of infrastructure investment is creating demand for people who can build, maintain and operate physical systems.

Look at electricians.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics now projects electrician employment to grow 9% from 2025 to 2035, roughly three times the rate for all occupations.

It expects about 72,700 openings every year.

BLS specifically cites increasing electricity demand, grid investment and data-center growth as factors supporting demand.

This month, employers and workforce organizations also launched a national initiative specifically aimed at training workers to build, operate and maintain U.S. data centers because the industry says it can't find enough skilled people.

That's an interesting career story.

The digital economy requires a surprisingly physical workforce.

Someone has to build the building.

Wire it.

Cool it.

Maintain the machinery.

Keep people safe.

Fix whatever begins making a noise it wasn't making yesterday.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects occupational health and safety specialists and technicians to grow 19% over the next decade.

Electrical power-line installers and repairers:

10%.

This does not mean everybody should quit marketing tomorrow and become an electrician.

Please finish today's campaign.

And the idea that “white-collar work is disappearing” is too simplistic.

BLS still projects software developer employment to grow 10.2% through 2035. Data scientists are projected to grow 34.6%.

Something more interesting is happening.

Demand is moving.

Jobs tied to healthcare, infrastructure, energy, data and specialized technical skills have strong tailwinds.

Some traditional office sectors are having a much harder time.

Careers aren't ranked by how impressive the title sounds.

They are markets.

And markets reward scarcity.

If ten thousand people can do your job tomorrow, that's information.

If companies are building training programs because they can't find enough people who can do it, that's information too.

Maybe career planning should involve more of that information.

And slightly less:

What sounds impressive at Thanksgiving?

BLS projects roughly 72,700 electrician openings per year through 2035.

Median pay was $63,190 in 2025, and apprenticeships remain a common route into the field.

Your laptop requires electricity.

Electricity has apparently developed leverage.

Employment for occupational health and safety specialists and technicians is projected to grow 19% from 2025 to 2035, with about 20,900 openings per year.

Turns out “please don't get injured at work” has a labor market.

Software developers are projected to add roughly 174,700 jobs by 2035.

Median annual pay in 2025 was $135,980.

So no, this isn't the part where we announce:

EVERYONE LEARN PLUMBING.

The lesson is to watch demand, not slogans.

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Write down your strongest skill.

Then ask:

Where else is this valuable?

Project management?

Manufacturing.

Healthcare.

Construction.

Energy.

Logistics.

Technology.

Quality?

Labs.

Medical devices.

Aerospace.

Food.

Distribution.

Your career may have more doors than your current industry makes visible.

When one market slows, adjacent markets matter.

Companies don't pay for titles.

They pay for access to skills they need.

The harder those skills are to find, the more leverage the person carrying them tends to have.

So when you're deciding what to learn next, don't only ask:

Will this look good on my résumé?

Ask:

How many companies need it?

How hard is it to learn?

How hard is it to replace?

What happens if demand increases?

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2006

Get a degree so you'll always have a stable job.

2026

Which degree?

Which job??

Which industry???

And have you considered maintaining a data center????

That's 3.5% employment growth.

The previous decade grew 10.9%.

Growth is slowing.

Which makes knowing where the growth is happening considerably more useful.

Vote below.

And send this issue to the person who's wondering what the next ten years of their career might look like.

Maybe they'll subscribe.

Maybe they'll become an electrician.

Either way, you've helped.

www.still-monday.com

Technically Wednesday. Emotionally Monday.

See you tomorrow.

— The Still Monday Desk