These 3 topics keep coming up – in one form or another – in all of my work so I’m going out on a limb and saying they represent the biggest opportunities both for companies and for workers for the foreseeable future.

Each of these 3 trends is rich in opportunity for every kind of business and every kind of skill set. All it takes is drilling down and finding what’s right for you.

 

TREND 1:  HEALTH CARE

At the end of 2017, for the first time in history, health care become the largest source of jobs in the U.S. surpassing manufacturing and retail, which were the most significant job engines of the 20th century.

• In 2000, there were 7MM more workers in manufacturing than in health care.
• By 2007 (at the beginning of the Great Recession), there were 2.4MM more workers in retail than health care.
• As of 4Q 2017, health care surpassed both.

What’s driving the growth?

• America is an aging country, as people get older they need more care
• Health care is government subsidized (Medicare, Medicaid, and benefits for millions of government workers)
• Health care is local and hands-on – it’s far less likely to be impacted by globalization and automation than many other industries.

 

TREND 2: LEGALIZED CANNABIS

If legalized nationwide, marijuana is projected, by 2025, to create over a million jobs and deliver $132 billion in federal tax revenues.

• 60% of Americans now believe marijuana should be legal (double the number in 2000).
• Even former U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner — a onetime marijuana foe — reversed course and joined the advisory board of Acreage Holdings, which cultivates and dispenses cannabis.
• 121,000 people are currently working in the nation’s home-grown marijuana industry. For comparison, there are fewer than 50,000 coal miners.
• An average-size pot dispensary has more sales per square foot than a Whole Foods (Source: Cowen and Marijuana Business Daily)

 

TREND 3:  FREELANCING & THE GIG ECONOMY

The gig economy makes up 34% of the workforce; expected to reach 43% by 2020.

• Up until the late 2000s, “gigs” were considered a step away from unemployment. Less than 10 years later, more and more people are choosing freelance work, or “gigs,” over traditional employment.
• As traditional businesses (e.g. advertising, financial services, fashion and retail) continue to be upended, we’re seeing more layoffs and “steady” work looks less reliable.

Read on below for more details and growth potential for each of these trends.

 

HEALTH CARE: A MULTI-TRILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY

Of the 10 jobs that the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects will see the fastest percent growth in the next decade, five are in health care and elderly assistance.

• The two fastest-growing occupations—personal-care aides (who perform non-medical duties for older Americans, such as bathing) and home-health aides, (who help the elderly with medical care)—are projected to account for one in every 10 new jobs in that time.
• The entire health-care sector is projected to account for a third of all new employment.

Amazon, Apple, Google, JP Morgan Chase and Uber are all focusing on health care as their next big opportunity because it is an immense industry brimming with inefficiencies and rising costs.

• Amazon, in particular, is making “health & wellness” a priority.
• They just announced a new team, within Alexa, focused on the health-care space, specifically on new moms, diabetes management and aging.
• Amazon Web Services, the cloud-computing division, has a team dedicated to serving health and pharmaceutical companies.
• On the e-commerce side, they’re looking at multiple ways to get into drug distribution.
• The company’s most public pronouncement came earlier this year when it formed a joint initiative with Berkshire Hathaway and J.P. Morgan aimed at improving health-care services.
• The highly secretive Amazon Grand Challenge team is apparently working on hardware, diagnostics and the aging population.

 

CANNABIS: THE GREEN GOLD RUSH!

Wealthy investors are pouring tens of millions into the cannabis industry backing development of new medicinal products, such as cannabis-infused skin patches; new methods for vaporizing and inhaling; and “budtender” apps like PotBot, which promises to scour 750 strains of cannabis and use lab research, including DNA analysis of each strain, to help customers find the perfect match.

• MedMen, founded in 2010 has raised $100MM. It is attracting major investors because it has the operational expertise to scale up using agro-technology. They also have the resources for regulatory compliance.
• MedMen’s West Hollywood cannabis dispensary resembles an Apple store.
• They also recently hosted a completely sold out Institutional Capital and Cannabis Conference in San Jose.
• Benchmark Capital, funders of such high profile tech startups as Twitter, Uber, Snapchat, and Instagram is now investing in weed. They recently invested $8 million in Hound Labs, a startup in Oakland that’s developing the world’s first marijuana breathalyzer for drivers, companies and law enforcement to test whether people are too impaired to drive or work.

Big and Small, They’re All Getting Into the Biz:

• Constellation Brands, the parent of Corona beer, wants to make THC beer. Many former beverage execs are switching to the marijuana business.
• Big tobacco is exploring vaping. It could give them a huge chunk of the pot market.
• Tech startups are all over this with Uber-style delivery platforms, review and information websites and social media for stoners.
• One of the most notable examples: Leafly which claims to be the ‘largest cannabis website in the world’, with 13 million visitors per month. It allows users to rate and review different strains of cannabis and dispensaries. They can also get advice on which strains are best for their symptoms and information on local dispensaries.
• There’s also high demand for new growing systems. The same goes for other products used during growing, manufacturing, and distribution of cannabis.

Another major opportunity are the ancillary businesses that support the cannabis industry

• Ancillaries take advantage of the boom without having to deal with marijuana and regulatory demands directly.
• Support service businesses include accounting, marketing agencies, and software developers.
• People are also offering marijuana tours and marijuana-friendly bed-and-breakfasts.

And it’s all ages: Boomers are 20 times more likely to use pot than older Americans were 30 years ago.

 

FREELANCING/GIG ECONOMY

There’s so much demand from large firms for freelancers that Upwork is planning to double the size of their “enterprise team.” Upwork currently works with 20% of Fortune 500 companies.

• Large firms have begun to see freelance workers as a source of fresh ideas and “knowledge transfer” from the wider world.
• The savviest of large firms build a bench of highly valued experts that they can call upon as needed.
• Corporations are also looking for more flexible and low-cost ways to hire, which freelancing platforms make possible e.g. Samsung’s On Demand Talent Group fills capability gaps—particularly for quick-turnaround projects using companies like Upwork.

Massive opportunities exist for businesses to service the freelance economy from co-working spaces to collaborative software (e.g. Slack) to skills’ updates and training e.g. General Assembly.

Another key aspect of this trend, is to recognize it as a mindset that we will all invariably start to adopt because even those in full-time positions will find themselves out of work more frequently and for longer periods of time.

• The way to succeed in the future is to always be in a freelance mode i.e. skills sharp, perspective fresh, network and social media profiles up-to-date, outlook positive and always ready to collaborate.
• TIP:  Even if you have a full-time job, it is best to consider it an extended freelance gig (spend accordingly!).

 

Bottom Line.

To understand which trends will provide the most opportunities, I’ve always found it important to follow the money and study demographics. Those two elements will never steer you wrong.

If you study where wealthy investors are putting their money, which issues governments are in the process of “evolving their thinking” on and look at the makeup of the American (and the world’s) populations, it will lead you right to these three trends.

And no matter what industry you’re in, if you dig into these trends you’ll uncover massive opportunities for new products and services.