High Skill/High Growth Careers
Houston Area Employment Situation (Jobs Report/Data)Knowledge is power, especially when it comes to making informed career decisions.
Knowing what jobs and industries are in your area is an important first step to building a strong career. But with so many jobs in the Gulf Coast region, it can be hard to know where to start, or what education and skills you might need.
Workforce Solutions - Gulf Coast reviews and updates our career data every two years. These reports highlight the region’s biggest and best-paying industries, and the fastest-growing careers. Matching this information with your interests and goals, can help you choose a career pathway that’s right for you.
Targeted Industries
The Gulf Coast Workforce Board focuses on key industries that drive the region’s economy and offer strong, long-term career opportunities. These targeted industries include healthcare, energy, construction, manufacturing, education, and technology, among others. Chosen through labor market data and economic analysis, these sectors are expected to grow and provide the high-skill, high-demand jobs needed to keep the region competitive.
High-Skill, High-Growth Occupations
Whether you're a student, parent, educator, or exploring a new career path, our resources highlight over 120 career pathways offering strong wages, career advancement, and long-term demand across the Gulf Coast region.
Updated for 2025, these High-Skill, High-Growth Occupations support the region’s key industries and typically require specialized training or post-secondary credentials. Workforce Solutions offers workforce training & education scholarships to help eligible individuals gain the skills needed to enter these in-demand fields.
Our list of Opportunity Occupations includes careers pathways offering higher-than-average wages and job growth over the next 10 years. These occupations typically require advanced degrees; however, they are not eligible for workforce education & training scholarships.
The Where the Jobs Are list includes occupations expected to offer the most job openings in the near future. Ideal for individuals focused on careers with strong employment prospects.
The High-Skill, High-Growth Occupations and Alternate SOCs resource helps workforce planners track changes to job classification codes. It lists current and previous SOC codes for occupations identified as high-skill, high-growth by Workforce Solutions Gulf Coast.
Career Exploration Tool
Explore hundreds of careers using our interactive dashboard. Learn about job duties, pay, education requirements, growth outlook, and if a job qualifies as high-skill, high-growth or are eligible for a workforce education and training scholarship. It’s a quick way to find the right path for you.
Updated for 2025 to 2026
View the Career Exploration Tool