Almost 10 million of the 15 million new jobs to be added to the U.S. economy by 2016 will be professional or servicerelated, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and they are the opportunities coming from today’s shifts in the economy and the rising wave of Baby Boomer retirements.

And the hottest industry is health care.

That includes all health professions and all levels of training, according to David L. Durham, director of the Career Services Center at West Virginia University: not just doctors and the entire range of nurses, but physical and occupational therapists, for example, and dental hygienists as well as dentists.

Anita Davis, director of the Career Services Center at Mountain State University, agreed. Davis mentioned strong demand coming up for the evolving fi eld of physician assistants.

“They’re trained more than a fouryear- degree nurse — they have a master’s degree but not an M.D. degree,” Davis explained. “Demand for them is on the rise because there aren’t enough doctors to go around.”

Denise Hogsett, director of career services at Marshall University, also sees strong need coming up in personal care services for senior citizens.

“When you think of retiring Baby Boomers, there’s a whole industry in senior care, assisted care — going into people’s homes and helping them continue to live independently. It may be light housekeeping, fi xing meals, making sure they’re taking their medications,” Hogsett said. “That might be along the lines of a two-year medical assisting type of certifi cation.”

For those uninterested in health care, energy is a hot possibility.

“Energy-related jobs are going to be huge,” Durham said — both nationwide and here in West Virginia. “There are so many oil and gas companies moving into West Virginia now. Everybody I talk to in that industry says, ‘We plan to double this,’ or, ‘We plan to triple that.’”

Companies in energy hire engineers as well as geographers, geologists and other scientists, Durham pointed out.

Engineering related to infrastructure also is headed into a period of growth.

“Construction, not residential but things like city systems and water treatment systems — systems in the eastern U.S. are becoming antiquated so there are a lot of civil engineering jobs coming up,” Durham said.

Another job area that’s growing is the environment.

“Everybody’s greening everything up,” Durham said. “There’s going to be an entire group of ‘green collar’ jobs coming up, primarily in architecture, engineering and construction,” said MSU’s Davis, “but also in environmental sciences.”

These jobs can range from designing more energy-effi cient building systems to constructing wind turbines, measuring vehicle emissions and rehabilitating wetlands.

For students who don’t take a hardsciences approach to life, the business professions remain strong career choices, according to Davis.

“Accounting is a very highly soughtafter degree,” she said, along with its edgier cousin, forensic accounting. “Since Enron, and with the fi nancial crisis going on now, they need this not just to investigate companies but in the long run to protect companies from potential lawsuits.”

Durham also mentioned sales — not retail sales but sales positions that require a background in a specialty such as pharmaceuticals.

And demand for graduates in computer science and information technology is expected to remain strong as well, he said.

Hogsett specifi cally mentioned Internet marketing as an area that is expected to grow.

Davis stressed that everyone now needs computer skills.

“No matter what job fi eld anyone goes into, you’re going to be interacting with computers in some form,” she said.

“Whether it’s a simple spreadsheet, e-mail or just the basic word-processing format, some people still think they don’t need computer science when in fact they do.”

And while Davis sees value in considering careers where hiring is expected to grow, she also offered a bit of what she called “cheesy” advice.

“Follow your heart, and don’t be afraid to try new things. That’s what college is about,” she said. “While there might not be a straight path, if you stick to your interests, you’ll be better off in the long-run.”