These are the fastest growing industries for Gen Z

LinkedIn just released its 2025 Grad Guide highlighting the fastest-growing cities, industries, and job titles for new workers with and without a bachelor’s degree. 

A variety of industries and professions made the list. However, the new data offers a few surprises when it comes to what grads and non-grads are pursuing most often, with many non-grads heading into careers that once required college degrees—and many graduates in fields that don’t.

When it comes to where young professionals are moving post-college, the Sun Belt states, including Tucson, Dallas, Tulsa, Knoxville, and Chattanooga, are turning into hot locations for new graduates to get to work. Entry-level non-grads are heading to big cities more often. San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, New York, Boston, Miami, and D.C. all made the list. But so did a few smaller hubs like Detroit and Orlando.

Entry-level workers without a degree joining a variety of industries, with the fastest-growing fields being customer service, education, and real estate. Notably, financial services, a field which has typically required a college degree, is also on the list, meaning young professionals are breaking into the field in other ways that don’t involve four years of formal education.

Marketing seems to be hugely popular for non-grads, too. It shows up three times on the list of the fastest-growing entry-level jobs, meaning marketing skills can be learned outside of a four-year college—perhaps by tech-savvy Gen Zers leaning into skills they learned by coming of age with social media at their fingertips. Non-grads are more frequently becoming marketing specialists, social media marketing specialists, and marketing coordinators.

College grads are also joining a variety of industries, including in fields that don’t traditionally require a college degree. Case in point: Number one on the list of fastest-growing fields is construction. Real estate, utilities, wholesale, and administrative services were all growing fields for college graduates, too. Perhaps least surprisingly, new grads are leaning into technology, with artificial intelligence engineers landing as the fastest-growing job on the list. 

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