25 high-paying jobs of the future that don't require a college degree

Exercise trainer is one career that doesn't require a college degree and has a bright future ahead.Jamie Grill/Getty Images

• Not all high-paying jobs that are likely to see big employment growth over the next decade need a bachelor's or graduate degree.
• Using employment projections and salary data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we found which jobs are set to have a bright future over the next decade that don't require a college degree.
• These jobs include fitness instructors, electricians, and various first-line supervisors.

If you are looking for a career change during the pandemic and don't have a college degree, one of these jobs may be a good place to start your search, as these occupations are expected to have a bright future over the next decade.

To find out which high-paying jobs are likely to grow over the next several years, we used the latest employment projections and median annual salaries from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Using 2019-2029 employment projections and May 2019 annual salaries, we calculated the geometric mean for each occupation to allow for an overall ranking of occupations.

Since we want to focus on high-paying jobs, we looked at only those that make above the median salary among all occupations of $39,810. To look at occupations that don't require a college degree, we then found the highest-ranking jobs on our overall list where the typical required education is a high school diploma or its equivalent, postsecondary degree award, some college but with no degree, or has no formal education requirement.

Some of the following jobs are expected to grow above the average among all occupations from 2019 to 2029, at 3.7%. One of those especially quickly growing occupations is industrial machinery mechanics, which is expected to see employment growth of 62,300 new jobs between 2019 and 2029, or a 15.6% expansion. Dental assistants is another occupation that is expected to grow faster than the overall average, by 23,400 net new jobs or 6.6%.

It is important to note that the estimates developed by BLS use historical data and do not take into account the effects of the pandemic on employment, per a BLS press release regarding the recent employment projections.

For instance, flight attendants have a typical educational requirement of a high school diploma, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that this occupation is expected to have a bright future over the next decade. However, the airline industry has been one of the hardest hit amid the pandemic with a drop in demand, job cuts, and a Moody's prediction that it will take years for this industry to recover.

Here are 25 high-paying jobs that don't require a college degree and that have bright futures ahead: