Experts anticipate a good job market for Butler County in coming years, but workers must know which vocations will thrive.

Health care and information security are two sectors where job growth is expected in the years to come.

According to a study done earlier this year by the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, seven out of the 10 jobs in the region with the most open positions, that do not require applicants to have a bachelor’s degree, were in health care.

This need for nurses, nurse’s aides and retirement community workers will only increase as the Baby Boomer generation gets older.

“We have an aging work force that is retiring and will be in a position to need health care in coming years,” said Linda Topoleski, vice president of workforce programs and operations for the Allegheny Conference.

Information security is expected to stay strong, because nearly every type of business has a need for its digital information to be secure.

“Information security is one of the fastest-growing services. It impacts every single sector. Everyone is trying to protect data,” Topoleski said.

While the market can vary in different communities, this trend was also seen when looking at job postings in Butler County, according to the Allegheny Conference.

The top two jobs for workers with only a bachelor’s degree were truck driver with a class A commercial license and licensed practical nurse. For jobs requiring at least a two-year degree, the top positions were registered nurse and administrative assistant and the top jobs requiring at least a four-year degree were physical therapist and software engineer.

Some of the skills in demand for positions in the county include quality assurance, knowledge of Linux operating system, information management and pediatrics. Some of the certifications in demand for the county include commercial driver’s license, certified registered nurse, CPR, HAZMAT and OSHA certification.

In nearby Allegheny and Beaver counties, many of the same jobs were in demand, with welder and occupational therapist also listed as jobs with a lot of vacancies.

Officials also anticipate the job market to change in coming years because of the planned Shell ethane cracker plant in Beaver County.

The plant will create about 4,000 construction jobs during its four-year construction, she said.

Once it is up and running it will also create about 600 jobs for engineers and technical workers at the plant. Officials also anticipate downstream plastic manufacturing plants, which are anticipated to crop up in Beaver County near railroad service and the Ohio River.

In a report issued by the Allegheny Conference, titled “Inflection Point: Supply, demand and the future of work in the Pittsburgh region,” experts predicted that Western Pennsylvania will experience a shortage of thousands of employees in the coming decades. As thousands of members of the Baby Boomer generation retire in the coming years there will not be enough new workers coming from the region’s high schools and colleges to replace them. This will potentially create a shortage of 80,000 workers by 2025.

In response to this problem, officials have urged community and business leaders to institute programs and policies that will aim to retain students and workers for the region and also attract people from other areas.