In today’s capitalist world, the value of any job often comes down to one thing: supply and demand. But sometimes, we have no clue just how much demand there is in certain fields.
Curious to uncover them, one Redditor asked users which industries are booming far more than most people realize. The answers were full of surprises, and we’ve rounded up some of the most interesting ones below. Feel free to weigh in or maybe even see this as market research for your next big career pivot.
#1
In the UK the VPN business is red hot.
Image credits: driftwooddreams
#2
HVAC. More areas where you used to get by just fine with an open window and a box fan are getting unbearably hot in the summers.
Image credits: lazermaniac
#3
Storage units. We’re basically paying rent for our junk to live a better life than we do.
Image credits: JahanzaibRj
#4
Grid-scale battery storage, used to store excess electricity from wind and solar farms for use during peak demand. This industry is huge and is growing exponentially, especially as the cost of batteries continue to drop and demand increases.
Image credits: Routine_Biscotti_852
#5
Mental health and wellness technology e.g. digital therapy apps, telepsychiatry, and wellness platforms.
Image credits: Former-Loan-4250
#6
Sports betting.
FreezersAndWeezers:
As a big sports fan, I can’t believe how out of control it’s become. 10 years ago it felt like it was a niche thing that your weird uncle did, now you cannot go anywhere that has sports and not have it be a massive point of discussion. A large group of people, mostly men, are completely incapable of watching a sport now without having money on something or yammering about their parlay
I wish it was similar to cigarettes where they can’t advertise it, or even regulated like alcohol where you can’t show anyone actually partaking/“having fun” in ads. It’s chipping the integrity of sports
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#7
Mobile games. $92.5 billion made in 2024, half of the entire video game industry.
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#8
The used car market. I work on the back end in the commercial lending side for car dealerships.
The tariffs (or threat of) on new cars has pushed used car prices towards ridiculous numbers.
I occasionally show up at auctions to gauge market trends and a 2017 VW Jetta with 133k miles hammered at $11k. Plus auction fees and transport it'll be $12k and that's before the dealer has done any repairs or made a dollar of profit.
Pre Covid a 8 year old Jetta would be $2k tops. But people keep paying it. My market share has risen about 40% since January.
Image credits: EnricoPalazz0
#9
Dead people. There are more dead people than ever.
A family member is a Mortician by education, and though he has since retired out, he made great money doing it.
Image credits: Cerulean__Dream
#10
Travel.
Reddit loves to talk like everybody is living in destitute poverty. But I’ve worked in the travel industry for 15 years and every sector is up right now. Hotel, air, cruise, tour, luxury, Disney, ski, etc. All of it is up.
Image credits: El_mochilero
#11
International conflict. Arms producers don't make money when ordnance is mothballed.
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#12
Apparently the matcha industry.
Image credits: Odd_Dot3896
#13
Remote scams and blackmail.
Investment scams (not counting crypto rugpulls and memecoins, I feel like that's a different area), service cancellation scams, romance scams (pig butchering) / blackmail, pretty much anything that convinces your parents/grandparents to buy a ton of gift cards or go to a crypto exchange terminal.
There are entire buildings full with scam call centers, human trafficking where people are forced into scamming, it's a huge industry now.
Image credits: Netcob
#14
Pharmaceutical industry. People are getting sick every day and doctors are writing many prescriptions whenever they can, even though some prescriptions are not always medically necessary for patients to take.
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#15
Utilities. Data centers are so desperate for energy they want thier own nuclear reactors. .
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#16
Wastewater treatment. S**t doesn't go away.
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#17
Pet cremation.
tiankai:
Pet anything actually. If you know how to source it you’ll make bank selling in western markets.
Image credits: Long-Tip-5374
#18
Pest control, quietly a 5-11% growth year over year. PE firms are buying the mom and pop shops like crazy, anything over 1m in revenue that shows a healthy business plan.
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#19
Energy - particularly electricity due to AI demand. Electricity demand has been pretty slow and steady the past couple decades due to better efficiency, but now AI has caused a huge spike.
Image credits: CrystalCrusader407
#20
The second-hand clothing resale industry.
Everyone talks about fast fashion, but Vinted and thrift stores are quietly driving a huge economy.
Image credits: Much-Guide-8684
#21
You can really see the “authoritarian-adjacent” industries booming under Trump right now. Private prison giants are making record profits off the mass deportation campaign, with the government paying them to lock up more people than ever. Surveillance and defense-tech companies like Palantir are swimming in multi-billion-dollar contracts. Border security tech, AI infrastructure - it’s all getting huge funding. Whatever you call it - authoritarian, security-state, strongman-friendly - these sectors are cashing in big right now.
#22
Electricians are in super high demand.
#23
Anything that can be scalped - trading card games, driving lessons, concert tickets etc.
Image credits: IamlostlikeZoroIs
#24
Vertical farming is booming! It's a sustainable way to grow food in cities, and big tech is starting to invest in it. It’s going to be huge in the coming years!
#25
Private tutoring, SAT/ACT prep. One of the highest profit margin businesses to operate. .
Image credits: Appropriate_Fly_1383
#26
Golf had a huge boom and revitalization across the industry during covid and managed to stay busy even when people started to return to work. In North America, golf courses are one of the largest buyers in electric handheld equipment (at least from what I've seen in the Mid-Atlantic Region) and now we're starting to see robotic mowers take over the industry which helps alleviate the labor issues they've always had and remove a couple of the super expensive diesel wide area mowers from their fleets.
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#27
In Britain anything associated with caravanning is currently raking it in, and it's not the stereotype of retired Boomers propping it up, it's gen X and the older millennials.
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#28
Oil and gas, the fact people actually believe we can transfer to anywhere close to 100% electric vehicles is hilarious.
Image credits: True_Taste_9638
#29
Trading cards. It's not just Pokemon cards, Magic the gathering has 3 amazing crossover sets dropping this year (Final Fantasy, Spider-man and Avatar the last Airbender)
Every single trading card game is booming. There hasn't been a single unprofitable product put out by any TCG manufacturer this year (except Konami... Yu-Gi-Oh sucks)
These games are even bigger than they were at the beginning of COVID when people were sitting at home with nothing to do. It's insane!
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#30
Renting luxury handbags by the week. Entire businesses run on it.
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#31
Sustainable packaging.
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#32
Plastic minis and war games
Seriously, Games Workshop brings in more for the British economy than the entire fishing industry. It's actually mad how much people will pay for that stuff when it's so very cheap to make.
Please ignore me and my Skaven army over here. It's entirely justified when I do it.
Image credits: NeonGran
#33
Any industry that fills the void left by having a partner and friends. People are lonelier than ever. So pets, p**n, entertainment/distractions, dumb**s consumables (looking at you, labubu).
#34
AI governance. If you are a policy, legal, security, or ethics person who can get to a “power user” level of AI understanding (like earn a couple of certs, read a few books, and have some basic experience f*****g around with it)- you are set. A lot of jobs are going to be automated- but you will need human beings establishing guardrails for both business and government.
#35
Insolvency lawyers and debt collectors.
#36
Data industry. Hoooooly sht. I conceived a data company (API Automations) 4yrs ago because I had 7yrs in digital ads and I saw the writing on the wall. So I started selling consented data to whoever would buy it.
Now since DJT removed all restrictions related to copyright, AI and essentially Data, Elon and black rock stole+are selling the GOV data, the marketplace from ALL angles is exploding. Looking at raising 8-figures because the company is in such an amazing position due to criminals making it so.
#37
The darts industry. It started growing during Covid but has exploded in the last couple of years thanks mostly to Luke Littler. It’s now one of the most watched sports on TV here in the UK and is massive across Europe.
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#38
Education. Institutions keep adding educations but not removing the old ones.
At least here in Denmark the country. Theres the university which adds “molecular and medical microbiology”. Granted they combined two eductations which results in double the students spread out in classes.
And on the masters level only 15 students a year get to study Neuroscience in Beijing. So they add
Then theres the academy for commerce which offers 3.5 years proffesional bachelors. And like someone pointed out in here: they recently added cyber security as its own 3.5 years degree. .
#39
The Simp/Loner Economy and Virtual Influencers serving it.
Male Loneliness is at its all-time high and ppl have no idea how much money lonely men are willing to pay for their fav influencer to call out their name and say "thank you" on a live stream.
There's even a YT documentary about this in China.
#40
Non-Destructive Testing. As an Ultrasonic Testing Level 3, I am constantly being recruited. I was able to turn that into a 15k increase at my current company last year. The demand for NDT techs is only growing. No college degree required.
#41
It's niche but fine books.
#42
In the UK....Foster care. There's a desperate shortage of beds ( after 15 years of reduced social spending and stagnating economy)
Most councils have upped their rates to self-employed local foster carers, the personal tax allowance for foster carers is huge at 18k tax free plus £250 per week added to this for each child you look after. A foster carer can basically work tax free.
There's still a huge shortage. Due to a lack of local placements the local authority turns to the markets. Independent fostering Agencies are making absolute bank. It gets worse. Private children's homes are basically scalping councils for beds.
There was a 'rest is money' podcast on how rich individuals are no longer buying properties to rent for retirement income but starting children's homes, as the profits are so good. So how much are residential homes making? A local authority foster carer might get paid 18-26k a year for looking after a child. An independent fostering agency might charge 50-75k a year for a placement, A private residential home might charge up to 45k a week for a placement ( as stated and sourced from the podcast) A single placement....45k a week.
So if you want lower council tax become a foster carer.
Edit; £45k is in rare and extreme cases, the usual is about 5/6 k per week for private residential homes. Still a huge amount.
#43
Physical retail. Redditors insanely think that malls are dying because of the internet. Malls are dying because we built too many of them and they started competing with each other, and malls are so expensive to operate that the business model doesn't work unless they're basically 100% leased. But if you drive around any dead mall, it's usually surrounded by miles and miles of thriving strip malls, which are just much cheaper to operate.
E: Another thing to note is that converting dead malls for some other purpose is one of the dumbest suggestions you'll ever hear from a human person. There's like one example of this being successfully done and it was a mall from the 1800s that looks nothing like modern malls. It would be cheaper and easier to tear down a mall and build something new than it would to convert them into something useful. I've even seen people suggest cities take them over and operate them as free community centers and I don't understand what world people are living in where they think that's feasible. It requires no specialized knowledge and no expertise whatsoever to intuitively understand that a giant building with giant ceilings and huge open spaces is going to cost a stupid amount of money to heat and cool.
>Just from the stand point of building a community center or other city related spaces (like a library or school) Surely it’s cheaper to retro fit a mall into smaller more economical (heating and cooling wise) spaces, than it is to completely tear it down and rebuild it.
It's not. It is **objectively and indisputably** cheaper to tear down a mall and build a purpose-built building than it is to try to retrofit this massive, mostly empty space for some more practical purpose. This isn't my opinion, it is a factual description of construction costs. If it conflicts with what you assumed before you read this comment, use this as an opportunity to learn and change those assumptions, not to argue.
E2: I am aware of the mall in Austin that was turned into a community college campus. Please feel free to check the replies before you post a comment that six other people have already posted. Also remember that the market for community colleges looking for new spaces in cities where they already exists a dead mall in reasonable shape is obviously incredibly small, and thus not a practical solution for the vast majority of malls. Most of them simply need to be torn down and there's no way of getting around that.
#44
Social media groups Investment scams on WhatsApp, Telegram etc.
#45
AI use to Scam people...
Between the building waves of AI voice and video spoofing real people, We are rapidly approaching the point where people need to meet *in person* to verify that messages being conveyed are real.
#46
Scamming children out of money in Roblox.
#47
I work in credit hire, it’s UNREAL how much money you can make storing damaged vehicles following a non-fault accident, hiring out vehicles (basically instead of a courtesy car) and then charging the at-fault insurers.. i’m talking millions per month. ofc, i’m still on minimum wage tho🤗.
#48
Private prisons that send kickbacks to judges regarding relatively minor offenses.
#49
Missiles. Everything and anything to do with missiles. Solid state rocket motors. If you are 14-24 and have a hunch you’d be satisfied or even enjoy being a part of solid state rocket engines, this is your moment.
#50
It hasnt kicked in just yet but personal robotics is about to be huge. The mechanical and electronic obstacles have already been solved. Now it's just a matter of AI training the software so that you can own a $15K robot that does your laundry, feeds the dog, and keeps an eye on the house when you're out.
#51
Mega-Yacht builders, seriously its a booming industry.
#52
The appliance and electronics repair and maintenance industry.
Why?
Almost everyone uses smartphones, laptops, and household appliances that break down from time to time.
Instead of buying new, many people and companies choose to repair or upgrade old appliances.
This market is constantly growing due to the rapid development of gadgets and their complexity.
In addition, the popularity of cleaning, optimization, and preventive maintenance services for appliances is growing.
#53
Smaller city tourism.
OKC for instance has increased their Tourism-specific Economic Impact by $1.6 billion dollars in a single year.
Affordability comes into play here, while other destinations are almost impossible to vacation to for the average John and Jane, smaller markets have managed to keep pricing around the same, so people hungering for a vacation are starting to pick smaller destinations over the larger ones.
#54
Content creation on places like YouTube.
#55
Fencing. I’ve called 3 companies recently for a simple chain link fence and all are booked out 3-4 months.
#56
Wedding and Event venues. I own a mobile bar business and travel around to wedding venues around my area. Some of these venues are booked two years out. Some of them are no longer doing off-season discounts.
#57
Cooling industries and technology for AI cooling. Thorium energy research and development, oddly enough biodegradable product items/research, with many countries developing modern cities -> urban planning for sewerage systems and water recycling systems. But if you are looking for jobs in warmer climates with limited water, desalination is real big anything associated with it is being headhounded for specialist.
There's like social media things you can do right now for a quick trend buck. AI babies, AI songs that you create with a popular person with tweaks. Oddly enough with so many people without homes, I kid you now a squatting coordinator to move people into non-occupied homes where you get a large upfront payment for disclosing details. Also, I'm not joking with Ice one could say, a person who takes large sums to hide illegals for a long period of time.
Yeah I have friends tell me about job details almost daily many of them are recruiters.
#58
Remediation companies. Even if you don’t lose your home to a fire, if you’re near a burn zone your house could get covered in ash and become toxic and uninhabitable. Depending on square footage, many of these cleanup crews charge anywhere from 30-200k per home. In the last year I’ve seen remediation vans driving all over. With climate change I can only imagine how business is going to boom.
