By Carol Tice, for

With the economy shrinking, many job-hunters are looking for a new career that pays well – and they need to find one that's not going to disappear. Here are the careers that are forecast for strong growth over the next decade, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics projections through 2016.

Robin Ryan, career coach and author of 60 Seconds and You're Hired says, "I look at where you can make good money, where employers are looking for people and saying they can't find them."

She notes that the federal growth forecasts are a couple of years old, and some fields are undergoing rapid change. Be on the lookout for emerging opportunities, especially those that involve Internet skills. With the cost of education soaring, we asked our experts to focus primarily on careers you can get started in without a four-year degree.

Laura Morsch, CareerBuilder.com writer

It's a great time to be a sports fan. From the Winter Olympics to NCAA basketball to international soccer you can catch a sporting event nearly all the time at a live game or on a 24-hour TV or radio sports station.

This could make it exceptionally hard to tear yourself away from your TV and go to work ... unless you're lucky enough to work in sports. But since most of us weren't born with the athletic ability to make it as an athlete, there are some jobs that allow regular folks to satisfy their sports cravings and still bring in a regular paycheck. Here is a sampling:

By Molly Hallman, PayScale.com



On April 21, 2009, President Obama signed the Edward Kennedy Serve America Act to increase volunteer and community service opportunities for every American. Young Americans, according to some in the service field, are especially poised to accept this responsibility. "Generation Y's dedication to service is the greatest of any generation since ... those who came of age late in the Depression and fought the Second World War," says Steven Rothberg, President and Founder of CollegeRecruiter.com. Whether you are about to graduate from college, or have had a few years of working experience, here are some opportunities to explore.

By Carol Tice, for Payscale

Not so long ago, having advanced computer skills was considered the ultimate in job security. How times have changed. Now, tech jobs are among the most heavily outsourced. Research firm Computer Economics recently estimated that more than half of all software application development work was contracted out last year, often to workers in other countries, along with 44 percent of application maintenance tasks and 40 percent of Web site and e-commerce work.

Rachel Zupek, CareerBuilder.com

Twenty years ago, you may have been hard pressed to find a company that employed women or minorities in senior management positions, if at all. Today, you'd be less likely to find otherwise: 28 percent of employers have more than five women in senior management positions and 18 percent of employers have more than five people of an ethnic minority in senior management positions, according to a 2008 CareerBuilder.com diversity survey.Diversity can have a considerable influence on how your organization is perceived by others and, as a result, more and more companies are making diversity a core value or a business imperative.