Most Secure Jobs that Need Little Training

For jobs that typically don’t need a college degree, which are the most secure?

Here we take a look at five popular ones (see chart below). Each of these are “secure” in the sense that they are jobs with very low unemployment rates. In addition, each of these jobs typically do not require a college award, plus they usually don’t require extensive training.[1]

There are over 330,000[2] postal service mail carriers in the nation. Though overall employment in the Postal Service is projected to contract over the long-term,[3] mail carriers currently have a very low unemployment rate. When these jobs open, there also tends to be strong competition, with the number of applicants typically exceeding the number of open positions.[4]

The secretaries and administrative assistants occupation group also has a low unemployment rate. There are several detailed occupations within this group, each with different requirements. Legal and medical secretaries typically require a moderate amount of on-the-job training. Executive secretaries and administrative assistants typically require prior work experience. The remainder of secretary and administrative assistant jobs—which is the majority—are positions which usually need short-term on-the-job training.

There are roughly a half million tellers jobs in the nation. Another occupation with low unemployment, these positions are primarily at banks. The majority of tellers do not have a college degree and undergo about one month of on-the-job training; roughly 30% of these jobs are part-time.[5]

For teacher assistant positions, at least some college background is a typical requirement. However, close to 60% of teacher assistants do not have a college degree and about a third have no college at all.[6] There are over 1.2 million of these jobs and, in addition to having a low unemployment rate, this occupation is expected to grow at a slightly faster-than-average pace over the next ten years.[7]

Taxi drivers and chauffeurs is the last of our highlighted occupations. This job may be a surprising inclusion—Uber, after all, has been reported to have a high turnover rate.[8] Regardless, this occupation had a 3.9% unemployment rate in the nation in 2017, lower than the 4.4% overall unemployment rate.

Interested in our data and analysis?

[1] Training here is defined per the Bureau of Labor Statistics education and training assignments where—for the jobs examined here—the “typical education needed for entry” is less than a college award and the “typical on-the-job training needed to attain competency in the occupation” is none or short-term on-the-job training.

[2] All employment figures are per JobsEQ and represent the estimated average for 2017.

[3] https://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_table_207.htm

[4] https://www.bls.gov/ooh/office-and-administrative-support/postal-service-workers.htm

[5] https://www.bls.gov/ooh/office-and-administrative-support/tellers.htm

[6] https://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_table_111.htm

[7] https://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_table_102.htm

[8] https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/20/only-4-percent-of-uber-drivers-remain-after-a-year-says-report.html