Healthcare and AI-adjacent roles now dominate US hiring. Healthcare added 18% of all new jobs in 2024, and AI engineer roles are growing faster than any other professional category. For Resume Work, the highest-volume resume optimization opportunities sit at the intersection of healthcare, technology, and professional services, which account for roughly 75% of postings across major metros.

This report focuses on the high-value side of the market: professional roles where keywords, credentials, and role alignment change outcomes more than sheer application volume.

The 2025 optimization series

The two job markets: high volume vs high value

US hiring in 2025 is split between:

High-volume, high-turnover service roles (food service, retail, customer support) with millions of annual openings.
High-value professional roles in healthcare, tech, and finance where ATS keywords and credential placement have an outsized impact on hiring outcomes.

For resume optimization, the second market is the priority. These roles are competitive, structured, and keyword-sensitive.

Industry priorities for resume optimization

Tier 1 - Highest priority (volume + growth)

Healthcare and Social Assistance: 8.4% growth and the largest US employer.
Professional Services: 7.5% growth with ~1.5M current openings.
Technology (AI, cybersecurity, cloud): specialized roles growing even as general software postings soften.

Tier 2 - Strong volume

Financial Services: +70% posting growth in H1 2025 vs H1 2024.
Transportation and Warehousing: 3% growth driven by e-commerce.
Construction: 380,000 jobs projected, with data center demand driving electrical trades.

Tier 3 - Emerging or specialized

Renewable Energy: wind technicians +50%, solar installers +42% (smaller base).
Manufacturing: overall decline, but semiconductor investment projects ~500,000 jobs.

Declining sectors

Retail Trade: -1.2% projected through 2033.
Mining / Oil and Gas: -1.6% projected.

Healthcare dominates volume and growth

Healthcare and social assistance is the largest US employment sector at 18.15 million workers, and it is projected to add the most jobs through 2034. High-demand healthcare roles include:

Home health and personal care aides: 739,800+ new jobs projected.
Registered nurses: 166,100 new positions annually, with a 295,800 nationwide shortage and 16.4% turnover.
Nurse practitioners: 40% growth, median salary $129,210.
Medical and health services managers: 142,900 new jobs, +23% growth, median $117,960.
Physician assistants: 20% growth, median $133,260.

The nursing shortage is the biggest resume optimization opportunity in the market. With 1.9 million healthcare openings projected annually through 2033 and hospitals averaging 47 RN vacancies each, resumes that surface the right keywords and credentials will win.

Healthcare keyword priorities for templates and bullet alignment:

EHR / EMR systems
HIPAA compliance
Patient care
Clinical operations
Revenue cycle management
Telehealth
Medical billing and coding
Care coordination
Patient outcomes

For a deeper healthcare-only guide, see Healthcare resume keywords for 2025.

Tech: layoffs alongside AI hiring

Tech hiring is split between broad layoffs and fast-growing AI roles. Since 2022, 666,000+ tech employees have been laid off (239,101 in 2024), while AI Engineer and AI Consultant are the #1 and #2 fastest-growing titles on LinkedIn Jobs on the Rise 2025.

High-demand tech roles

Role	Projected Growth	Median Salary
Data Scientist	+34%	$112,590
Information Security Analyst	+29%	$124,910
AI / ML Engineer	Fastest growing	$180,000+
Cloud Architect	Strong demand	$154,000
Software Developer	267,700 new jobs	$144,570

Declining areas

Software development postings are down 51% from peak.
Entry-level tech hiring at top 15 firms fell 25% in 2024.
US programmer employment dropped 27.5% between 2023 and 2025.

For resume optimization, this suggests prioritizing AI/ML, cybersecurity, and cloud roles over general software development. Job postings mentioning GenAI grew 4x in 2024, and AI/ML roles carry a 34% salary premium while remaining the only tech category with increasing remote opportunities.

For a focused guide, see AI, cyber, and cloud resume keywords.

Geographic hotspots: where job seekers are concentrating

Highest absolute job volume (2024)

New York-Newark-Jersey City: +120,800 jobs, 13,330+ companies hiring
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim: +84,000 jobs
Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land: +78,000 jobs
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin: 9,342+ employers hiring
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington: 7,260+ employers hiring

Fastest-growing metros

Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise: +3.4% (hospitality rebound)
Salt Lake City: +3.0% (emerging finance and tech hub)
Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale: +2.6% (manufacturing and tech relocation)
Miami-Fort Lauderdale: +2.6% (finance and healthcare)
Austin, TX: 16.3% of jobs in tech vs 9% national average

For location strategy and salary deltas, see Best US metros for job seekers in 2025.

Skills and certifications employers search for

Across LinkedIn, WEF, NACE surveys, and job postings, these skill clusters appear most often in hiring decisions:

Technical skills

AI and Machine Learning (9% of postings, up from 5% in 2024)
Python (18% of postings, #1 programming language)
Cybersecurity (457,398 unfilled US positions)
Data Analytics (expected in 70% of roles by 2025)
Cloud Computing (market growing to $723.4B)
JavaScript (#2 most-used language)
SQL (consistently top 5)
Generative AI / LLMs (4x growth in postings mentioning GenAI)
Data Science (36% job growth projected through 2033)
Docker / containerization (+17 point usage increase in 2024-2025)

Soft skills

Analytical thinking (69% of employers)
Resilience, flexibility, and agility (67%)
Leadership and social influence (top 3)
Communication (#1 on LinkedIn overall skill ranking)
Problem-solving (nearly 90% of recruiters)

Critical certifications

Cybersecurity: CISSP, CompTIA Security+
Cloud: AWS Solutions Architect, Azure Solutions Architect
Project management: PMP, Scrum certifications
Data: Google Data Analytics Certificate, Tableau, Power BI

For a deeper skills guide, see Top skills and certifications for 2025.

Which companies are posting the most jobs

Amazon alone posts 11,000 to 13,000+ roles and accounts for more openings than the next three companies combined. Other high-volume employers include:

Google (4,361)
JPMorgan Chase (3,000 to 4,400+)
PwC (~4,000)
AutoZone (~3,500)
KPMG US (~3,000)
Oracle (2,529)
Deloitte (~2,000)

The Big Four consulting firms (Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG) continue to represent massive hiring volume despite targeted layoffs. Healthcare systems like Kaiser Permanente (217,000+ employees), UnitedHealth Group, and regional hospital networks are also major employers, but their postings are fragmented across channels.

What this means for Resume Work users

Prioritize healthcare, AI, cybersecurity, cloud, professional services, and finance roles.
Make keywords and certifications obvious in Summary and Skills, then back them with evidence in Experience.
Use location-aware positioning when targeting top metros or fast-growth hubs.
Emphasize credentialed expertise and compliance (especially in healthcare).
Build a clear ATS-friendly layout so the right words get indexed and ranked.

If you want to operationalize this immediately, start with the resume tailoring guide and then tailor your resume.

Sources referenced in this report

US Bureau of Labor Statistics (sector growth, roles, metro job volume)
NCHStats (sector size and projections)
LinkedIn Jobs on the Rise 2025 (AI role growth)
Indeed Hiring Lab (software posting decline)
AMN Healthcare and Advisory (nursing and NP data)
Robert Half and MRINetwork (financial services postings)
The Interview Guys (metro and tech hub notes)
Second Talent and Jobsolv (AI premium, comp references)

The US Job Market in 2025: Where Resume Optimization Matters Most