The best jobs you can get once you have a high school diploma or GED

Home health and personal care aides will have the largest number of opportunities available to workers with a high school diploma or GED over the next decade, with about 765,800 job openings expected each year through 2034, according to new projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

However, just because these jobs will have the highest number of openings, does not mean they are the highest paying. If you want to earn more, other high school level jobs pay much better. Here’s what the BLS data shows.

What are the best options for high school graduates?

Home health and personal care aides generally “monitor the condition of people with disabilities or chronic illnesses and assist them with activities of daily living,” according to the BLS. Care assistant opportunities are expected to grow by 17% from 2024 to 2034, with about 765,800 job openings each year.

These jobs usually require a high school diploma, but in some cases, no formal education is required. However, some workers at certified home health agencies or nursing homes may need to complete some training or pass a standardized test.

The average wage for care aides in 2024 was about $34,900 per year, or $16.78 per hour, which is less than the average annual wage for all occupations, which was $49,500 in 2024.

First-line supervisors offer office and administrative support staff the best combination of expected opportunities and income. These workers supervise clerical and administrative staff and earned a median wage of $66,140 in 2024, about $17,000 more than the median wage for all occupations.

The most common employers of these supervisors are banks and lending institutions. Top earners in this field can earn up to $136,070, especially in transporting natural gas via pipelines.

Customer service representatives and office workers round out the top three, with about 350,000 and 300,000 job openings expected each year, respectively. The rest of the top 10 covers a mix of industries: secretaries and administrative assistants, food service supervisors, security guards, child care workers, maintenance and repair workers, assemblers and manufacturers.

Together, the top 10 jobs are expected to account for about four out of 10 jobs at the high school level, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which projects about 19 million job openings each year across the economy through 2034, most of them from replacing workers who leave the workforce or change jobs, not from newly created jobs.