We’ve spent a lot of time on Illinois Water talking about
different types of water-related jobs, but we’ve never addressed why water
careers are worth knowing about. Here are three reasons why water jobs just
might deserve your attention.
1. There’s something
for everyone
In covering water-related careers, Science wrote that the “opportunities are endless—it's almost a frontier
mentality." And, indeed, in our WaterJobs series we’ve interviewed a
biologist, professor, planner, engineer, modeler, and developer, and all these
people work in water. While that’s only six, you should see our list of
proposed interviewees. Water touches everyone and everything in some way or
another. And, with a growing human population and increasing demand for
freshwater in a developing world, there may be future requirements for water
jobs that don’t even exist today.
2. It’s stable
employment (probably)
As long as you’re not planning to swim with the dolphins,
you have a good shot at landing an engaging and well-paying job, even without a
bachlor’s degree.
Consider these numbers from the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics:
- Demand for Environmental Engineers is expected to grow by 22% from 2010 to 2020
- Demand for Environmental Engineering Technicians (requiring an Associate’s degree) is expected to grow 24% over that same time.
- Biochemists are expecting 31% growth
- And demand for Environmental Science Technicians (also Associate’s) is expected to increase 24%
Positions for environmental scientists, landscape
architects, and hydrologists are expected to grow at an average rate (between
16 and 19%) over the next ten years. However, there is one downside in this rosy
outlook: conservation biology positions are not growing. It’s always been
difficult to work with animals, and the Recession and a decrease in government
funding for research has made it more difficult, not just in the United States,
but all over the world. While those jobs do exist, they require a lot of hard
work, persistence, and volunteer hours to obtain.
One of the reasons some of these fields are seeing stable or
above average job growth is rapidly approaching retirement of the baby boomer
generation. Engineering firm Brown and Caldwell has developed intern programs
to help address their anticipated labor shortages and recorded their
experiences here.
3. It matters
The U.S. National
Intelligence has identified water access as a major source of potential
conflict around the world and a consequent security threat to the United
States. While we might not go to war over water in the United States, American water
disputes have already caused some acrimonious
lawsuits among southwestern states, and Illinois’ reversal of the Chicago
River has Michigan
pointing fingers in our direction as Great Lakes levels drop. Add to this
situation a badly
aging infrastructure, including dangerous old dams that need removal, the
threat of Asian carp invading the Great Lakes, the Mississippi earning a number
three spot on the Weather Channel’s list
of most polluted rivers in the world, and UN estimates that
nearly 3.4 million people a year die from lack of clean water and it’s not hard
to see that water is a field in need of innovation
and lots of hard work.
In discussing his career, one of our WaterJobs interviewees Rick Manner said that “working for the
environment is giving back to society.” If you feel contributing to your
community (and the world) is important in your career path, working in water is
one of the most practical ways you can make a difference.
