With over eight million people that call New York City home and almost 20 million across the state itself, New York is a land of opportunity as well as competition. It’s only the 27th largest state, but it’s the fourth most populous with two-thirds of the entire population of the state living in the New York metropolitan area, which includes New York City.
Jobs in New York also number in the millions, with almost 10 million people employed in the state. That means no matter what your field is, there are likely many opportunities for employment in the Big Apple, though it also means that your New York job search may take a minute. Between applications, interviews and other hoops, landing a job in New York is certainly a challenge, but if you’re persistent and keep at it, you’re bound to find something that fits your interests and experience.
Keep in mind that because there are so many fields and employment opportunities in the state, no one occupation stands head and shoulders above the rest. Even the most popular jobs in New York only account for a few percentage points of the total employment opportunities in the state, meaning that no matter what you’re looking for, odds are that you can find it in New York.
All Jobs in New York
As of 2020, the total number of employed individuals in New York numbered 9,522,980. The average salary was $46,680, which includes hundreds of paying jobs in the state. Most of the top 10 jobs in New York are made up of retail workers, clerks, waiters, aides and assistants, though other types of positions are in the top 10. Just outside the top 10 are jobs like accountants and customer service representatives, though security guards, maintenance workers and laborers are also well represented.
Top 10 Jobs in New York
Starting with home health and personal care aides at number one with 444,880 employed and making up 4.67% of the total, the top 10 jobs in New York include retail salespersons (288,630 employed / 3.03%), fast food and counter workers (211,970 / 2.23%), cashiers (198,340 / 2.08%), janitors and cleaners (190,730 / 2%), office clerks (186,380 / 1.96%), registered nurses (178,320 / 1.87%), general and operations managers (168,730 / 1.77%), secretaries and administrative assistants (166,810 / 1.75%) and waiters and waitresses (160,470 / 1.69%).
Top 20 Jobs in New York
Working our way into the next set, the top 20 jobs in New York include customer service representatives (158,520 / 1.66%), laborers and movers (132,350 / 1.39%), teaching assistants (131,100 / 1.38%), security guards (118,210 / 1.24%), maintenance and repair workers (112,560 / 1.18%), accountants and auditors (112,030 / 1.18%), stockers and order fillers (111,920 / 1.18%), first-line supervisors (110,080 / 1.16%), bookkeeping and auditing clerks (101,030 / 1.06%) and receptionists and information clerks (95,590 / 1%).
Top 30 Jobs in New York
As for the top 30 jobs in New York, they include elementary school teachers (92,560 / 0.97%), executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants (91,240 / 0.96%), nursing assistants (85,090 / 0.89%), software developers and software quality assurance analysts and testers (78,890 / 0.83%), lawyers (77,060 / 0.81%), secondary school teachers (75,360 / 0.79%), wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives (75,220 / 0.79%), restaurant cooks (71,100 / 0.75%), market research analysts and marketing specialists (68,680 / 0.72%) and sales representatives of services (68,110 / 0.72%).
Top 40 Jobs in New York
Dipping into the top 40 jobs in New York, popular positions include passenger vehicle drivers (67,150 / 0.71%), securities and financial services sales agents (67,120 / 0.7%), construction laborers (66,740 / 0.7%), first-line supervisors of retail sales workers (65,890 / 0.69%), heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers (63,090 / 0.66%), food preparation workers (59,850 / 0.63%), financial and investment analysts (57,980 / 0.61%), police and sheriff’s patrol officers (55,590 / 0.58%), management analysts (53,370 / 0.56%) and childcare workers (53,290 / 0.56%).
Top 50 Jobs in New York
In the top 50 jobs in New York, you’ll find carpenters (52,640 / 0.55%), first-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers (49,170 / 0.52%), project management specialists and business operations specialists (49,010 / 0.51%), maids and housekeeping cleaners (47,990 / 0.5%), light truck or delivery services drivers (47,210 / 0.5%), licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses (46,320 / 0.49%), financial managers (46,100 / 0.48%), computer user support specialists (45,250 / 0.48%), bartenders (44,970 / 0.47%) and landscaping and groundskeeping workers (44,730 / 0.47%).
What About the Highest-Paying Jobs in New York?
For those that are interested in the highest-paying jobs in New York, the list looks a little different. Instead of many service-oriented jobs and jobs that have low barriers to entry, these jobs require specialized education beyond a four-year degree. They’re also largely in health, marketing, tech or business as their pay ceilings are much higher than what you’d see for popular entry-level positions.
Top 10 Highest-Paying Jobs in New York
Starting out with financial managers that have an average salary of $197,080, the top 10 highest-paying jobs in New York also include nurse anesthetists ($185,580 average salary), general internal medicine physicians ($185,180), family medicine physicians ($183,740), sales managers ($180,060), computer and information systems managers ($173,780), marketing managers ($171,990), advertising and promotions managers ($167,320), judges ($163,780) and compensation and benefits managers ($158,380).
Top 20 Highest-Paying Jobs in New York
With average salaries above $140,000, the top 20 highest-paying jobs in New York include public relations and fundraising managers ($156,580), physicians and ophthalmologists ($156,430), general pediatricians ($155,960), architectural and engineering managers ($155,080), training and development managers ($149,290), lawyers ($146,980), specialist dentists ($144,120), purchasing managers ($143,300), human resources managers ($142,910) and personal financial advisors ($141,990).
Top 30 Highest-Paying Jobs in New York
For the top 30 highest-paying jobs in New York, they include general dentists ($140,280), air traffic controllers ($140,210), actuaries ($137,510), natural sciences managers ($136,400), podiatrists ($134,080), physicists ($134,030), computer and information research scientists ($132,160), general and operations managers ($131,950), securities and financial services sales agents ($131,070) and optometrists ($129,980).
Top 40 Highest-Paying Jobs in New York
In the top 40 highest-paying jobs in New York, you’ll find judicial law clerks ($129,980), orthodontists ($129,370), political scientists ($128,860), elementary and secondary school education administrators ($128,770), medical and health services managers ($126,780), postsecondary education administrators ($126,630), administrative services and facilities managers ($126,380), pharmacists ($124,630), industrial production managers ($123,260) and postsecondary economics teachers ($122,770).
Top 50 Highest-Paying Jobs in New York
Rounding out the top 50 highest-paying jobs in New York are physician assistants ($121,690), postsecondary architecture teachers ($120,030), construction managers ($119,490), nurse practitioners ($119,490), aerospace engineers ($119,480), data scientists and mathematical science occupations ($119,130), first-line supervisors of police and detectives ($119,100), computer network architects ($118,660), postsecondary law teachers ($118,370) and computer hardware engineers ($117,360).
What About Fastest Growing Jobs in New York?
While it can be helpful to look at popular jobs and high-paying positions in the state, if you’re looking for jobs in New York that are growing faster than other professions, you may be more interested in the fastest growing jobs in New York. Since demand for these positions often exceeds the available workers in the area, you can give yourself a leg up on the competition by getting in on the ground floor of an emerging field.
That said, nothing is static in the state of New York. The best jobs in New York City and elsewhere in the state are always shifting, and what makes for a quickly growing field today may not be the case in a decade, so it’s important to always be evaluating the job market and to switch things up if your career is stagnating. Furthermore, popular jobs in the future may be jobs that don’t even exist yet, which is just more proof that these metrics are constantly changing.
Top 10 Fastest Growing Jobs in New York
Starting off with the top 10 fastest growing jobs in New York, a casino gaming cashier tops the list with a growth percentage of 177.7% and an average wage of $28,400, followed by statisticians (154.9% / $87,560), home health aides (145.3% / $24,150), writers (138.5% / $28,710), web developers (134.7% / $81,140), interpreters and translators (134.4% / $55,180), physical therapy aides (133.8% / $28,220), nurse practitioners (132.1% / $113,450), biomedical engineers (131.7% / $99,490) and personal care assistants (131.1% / $25,510).
Top 20 Fastest Growing Jobs in New York
Beyond the top 10, other fastest growing jobs in New York include physical therapist assistants (130.4% / $53,470), operations analysts (130.2% / $106,260), business analysts (130.1% / $98,090), occupational therapy assistants (129.6% / $58,030), environmental technicians (129.6% / $51,530), physical therapists (129.3% / $85,730), software developers (129.3% / $113,120), emergency medical technicians (129.1% / $41,140), massage therapists (129% / $62,270) and audiologists (128.9% / $82,300).
Top 30 Fastest Growing Jobs in New York
The top 30 fastest growing jobs in New York include crew members (128.5% / $21,770), rod busters (128.2% / $84,690), bartenders (127.8% / $28,740), instructors (127.6% / $53,220), sheet metal mechanics (127.6% / $64,900), assistant managers (127.5% / $39,190), physician assistants (127.1% / $107,030), software engineers (126.8% / $111,720), protection specialists (126.6% / $29,090) and HVAC technicians (126.5% / $55,650).
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