Marketing and market research: Just hearing about this degree makes me cringe, as it immediately brings up memories of telemarketers calling me at all hours of the night to sell me their wares. However, marketing has evolved far beyond just traditional cold-calling these days. With the world having gone global in scale over the past two decades thanks to the advent of the Internet and far better infrastructure in burgeoning emerging markets like China, Brazil, Russia and India, a degree in marketing can translate into something as simple as a strategic marketing or advertising job with a multinational corporation to something as complex as a financial market analyst with a Wall Street firm. Because of the diversity of the degree and the need for marketing even at the simplest of businesses, it’s a degree with an unemployment rate of just 6.6%.
Last year, for examples, a Forbes report identified Sears Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:SHLD) as one of the nation’s largest companies seeking marketing help, with, at the time, 123 job openings in marketing — far and away higher than any other major corporation. To me that isn’t too surprising, as the struggling retailer needs fresh ideas and a new image to help transform it into a company that can once again attract younger consumers without having to get into pricing wars with its competition.
Veterinary medicine: For this last one I’m going rogue from Georgetown’s list and introducing a third area of undermet educational needs with high growth potential — veterinary medicine. I know this firsthand, since I was about halfway through a veterinary medicine degree in college 14 years ago before switching majors to economics. Between 2010 and 2020, veterinarian job growth is forecast to increase by 36% thanks to the growing acceptance of pets into the American household and as part of the family. To that end, veterinarians have an unemployment rate of just 0.6% (that’s right … zero point six percent!) according to U.S. News.
We only need to look so far as PetSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PETM) to see how transformative this change has been. PetSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PETM), which offers an array of retail pet products in its stores, as well as grooming and veterinary services, has delivered 126% revenue growth since 2003 — consistently growing its top line every year, even when the economy hit a major roadblock in 2009.
We’ve got college-educated people out there. Fix it!
Simply put, education should be a bigger emphasis in this country, but it’s not. Within these studies we have the knowledge to exact change that will lower unemployment and underemployment and create a happier and more productive workforce. Ultimately, this should improve economic growth and boost the top-line results of big corporations that could lead to a sustainable long-term rally in the Dow Jones and S&P 500. Without a big shift toward correcting our underutilization and educational problems, I don’t see this rally as sustainable for much longer.
The article You’ll Never Guess What Americans Consider the Least Concerning U.S. Problem originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Sean Williams.
Fool contributor Sean Williams has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name TMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @TMFUltraLong.The Motley Fool recommends PetSmart and UnitedHealth Group.
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