Five Jobs for Our Shores

By Sean Gregory

The presidential campaign thrust the offshoring of American jobs into the spotlight, and although the issue no longer dominates the headlines, it hasn't moved to an Asian call center. According to a new study by the McKinsey Global Institute, 2.3 million service jobs will have moved offshore from the U.S. by 2008, up from 900,000 as of 2003. So how do you protect yourself?

First, look for jobs whose supply outstrips demand, for which companies in the U.S. need qualified workers from anywhere on the globe. But most important, says Hans Gieskes, CEO of recruiting firm H3.com is to find a job in which you need to "smell, see and touch the culture you're working in." Here are five surprisingly hot fields where you must use your senses.

BREAKING ROCKS

Don't dismiss it as rocks for jocks. With oil companies desperately searching for new sources of crude and prices above $65 per bbl., now is a good time to know your limestone. Petroleum geologists study the earth's surface and subsurface to help predict the chances of striking oil. Over the past year, the average annual salary for a geologist with three to five years' experience has climbed 11%, to $75,600, reports executive- search firm MLA Resources. Across the board, salaries are up 8%. Also, demographics are driving demand; the average age of a petroleum geologist is 49. Bob Goldstein, a geology professor at the University of Kansas and an oil-industry consultant, says companies are offering his grad students salaries in the low $70,000s.

Although the industry is becoming more digitized, geology still has face-to-face--or face-to-rock--elements: when searching for new frontiers, explorers gather rocks in the field and run chemical tests to determine whether they once held oil; geologists may examine rock shavings on a rig to make sure drillers are hitting the right spot. "When someone spends $10,000 drilling the location you've scouted and makes a well, there's nothing more satisfying than that 'Attagirl' from investors," says Deborah Sacrey, a Houston-based geologist with her own company, Auburn Energy. "It's a huge sigh of relief."

PUMPING FOR DOLLARS

It may not sound exactly highbrow, but getting physical can pay off. Over the next decade, the number of fitness and aerobics instructors will grow 44%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), making exercise training one of the fastest-growing fields. (Bonus: a worker in China can't stretch your legs in the States.) "We eat too much and work too hard," notes Ron Clark, CEO of the National Federation of Professional Trainers. "We're not taking the time to educate ourselves on basics, like going for an occasional walk, so we'll hire someone else to tell us what to do." Clark says trainers can make $25 to $250 an hour, depending on the clientele.

At times, you will be sweating as much as your clients. "I've had people who never admitted they were wrong, who never followed any dietary advice and then couldn't believe they weren't getting results," says Stephon McCann, 39, a former Kansas City, Mo., bus driver who recently sold his gym "for a lot more" than he put into it and will make $50,000 to $70,000 per year as personal-training director at a Gold's Gym in St. Petersburg, Fla. But go in with reasonable expectations. "You can't imagine how many people I've interviewed who want the $100 [per hr.] celebrity clientele right away," says McCann. "You have to be ready to work for it."

DRIVING TRADE

With the U.S. economy growing, companies like Wal-Mart shipping freight from China and a $286 billion highway bill just through Congress, trucking is here for the long haul. Industry revenues will increase 32.4%, to $888.5 billion, according to economic research firm Global Insight, and the U.S. is projected to add 574,000 truck-driving jobs over the next decade. Yet the industry has reported a shortage of 20,000 long-haul drivers. "With the image of the truck driver barreling down a highway, shouting at you, there's a stigma attached to the job," says David Terkanian, a BLS economist. "People don't care that our society would collapse without trucks."

Weekends on the road have also deterred younger drivers from entering the field. But average weekly earnings for long-distance drivers were up 5.1%, to $725, in 2004, nearly closing the wage gap with construction, an industry fueled by the housing boom. And drivers can spend those weekends chugging alongside the Rockies. How can trucking help erase that stigma? "You can't go honking at people in four-wheelers," says Earl Sylvain, 69, a former high school teacher who has spent his retirement driving trucks. "Why would you curse at them? They're the ones using the stuff we're shipping. I wish more drivers would understand that without them, we wouldn't have a job."

CARING FOR BABY BOOMERS

If you're searching for a job that will be here in 10 years, no doubt nursing is first. You can't assist with surgery and help a patient sit up from overseas, and by 2012, the U.S. will add more than 620,000 registered nurses, more than any other occupation, according to the BLS. Why? With 77 million baby boomers approaching retirement age and preventive health care growing, nurses are in demand. Technology has shortened hospital stays for many patients, but the ones left behind are the sickest and require even more attention. Median annual earnings for nurses are $48,090, and 10% of registered nurses make more than $69,670. The hours are odd, though, with lots of tempting overtime opportunities. "I've wanted to smack--figuratively smack--some other nurses," says Kay Ball, 56, a longtime surgical nurse from Lewis Center, Ohio, "and ask them, 'Would you recommend this kind of unbalanced lifestyle to one of your patients?'"

MONETARY MENTORING

A call center in Bangalore, India, can sell someone a loan. But would people entrust all aspects of their financial future to someone they have never met? In the offshoring game, the need for a relationship gives the personal financial planner an edge. Planners look for more than just data. They need to scope out a client's priorities. "A person may mention that his family didn't help support his college tuition," says Elizabeth Jetton, an Atlanta-based planner who has met each of her 65 clients in person, "and you notice he starts fidgeting. That body language alone tells me something. He doesn't want to repeat this for his own kids." With baby boomers funding retirements and more people reluctant to go it alone like in the go-go '90s, the College for Financial Planning reports that median annual earnings for certified planners have grown 28%, to $153,500, over the past three years.

Planners thrive on knowing they help clients with their retirement, but market swings alone don't deliver memorable moments. "Try being in a room with a couple as they decide a fair amount of money to give each of their children when they die," says Jetton. "It's grueling."