Public Safety

Careers in protective services are forecast to grow more slowly than the average for all jobs through 2033, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. About 419,300 job openings will be available each year until then. Despite an increase in crime rates, and especially increases in public anxiety over crime and subsequently tougher laws and sentencing, all branches of the government, federal, state, and local, have experienced budget cuts and have slowed the hiring of more officers.

This slowdown follows a period of growth that began in 1990, when several incidents raised concern over domestic security, particularly the threat of terrorist attacks. The bombing at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995 and the terrorist attacks of 2001 caused an increase in both domestic and foreign intelligence and investigative operations that continues to date. The threat of terrorism continues to put all public safety officials on alert, from FBI and CIA experts to local police forces and private security companies. Domestic violence that occurred in 2020 also raised concerns about protective services for government workers. There is now increased security, particularly in and around government offices, public buildings, airports, post offices, and media headquarters. The Transportation Security Administration employs about 50,000 professional screening officers, has installed hundreds of body-scanning machines, and increased the explosive-detection canine teams at commercial airports. Nearly 50 percent of all TSA officers have five years or more experience as counterterrorism professionals. During the first half of 2024 alone, the TSA intercepted 3,269 firearms at airport security checkpoints throughout the United States. By comparison, its officers intercepted 4,432 firearms at airport checkpoints in all of 2019. They are now responsible for the security of nearly 440 federalized airports.

The war on drugs, which began during the 1980s, created a need for larger numbers of law enforcement officials trained and dedicated to reducing levels of drug trafficking. In the mid-1990s, President Clinton passed new tough-on-crime legislation that increased the numbers of police officers employed at the local, state, and federal levels. In 2022, there were nearly 908,000 arrests for drug law violations. Of all the arrests, almost 88 percent were for possession of a controlled substance.

The corrections industry recorded unprecedented growth in the number of prisoners from 1980, when there were 25,000 prisoners, to more than 1.5 million prisoners in 2014, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The war on drugs had an especially great impact on the number of people that were sent to prison. The prisoner population totaled 1.23 million at the end of 2022, up 2 percent from the previous year. The overcrowding of many correctional facilities has stimulated pressure for more liberal probation and parole efforts, requiring a greater number of parole and probation officers. The coronavirus outbreak also took a toll on prisons, with the infection rate extremely high due to dense prison populations in tight quarters. This high rate of COVID-19 in prisons raised the public's awareness of correctional facilities and has caused more intense scrutiny of prison facility management.

The correctional facilities industry generated revenues of $8.0 billion in 2024, according to the research group, IBISWorld. This reflected a 6.0 percent decrease from the previous year, and a compound annual decrease of 3.2 percent since 2019. The firm anticipated that declines would continue through 2029, reflecting heightened public scrutiny and the government’s movement away from private sector prison management.

People interested in a career in public safety will find more opportunities in the private, for-profit segment than at government agencies. For example, the DOL projects a growth rate of about 4 percent for the number of police officer and detective jobs through the year 2028, about as fast as the average for all occupations. The DOL says this will support approximately 63,000 job openings per year in the coming decade.

Firefighters will see average growth in their numbers through 2033, with the DOL citing a 4 percent increase. The DOL says that many positions will be created because of retirement or existing firefighters transitioning into different occupations. Demand will stem from the continued need for medical emergency response, as well as an uptick in wildland fires.

Another common job at these agencies is that of dispatchers, those who take emergency calls and let officers or firefighters know about the call and where to go. The number of dispatcher jobs in all public safety departments is expected to increase by 4 percent through 2033, about as fast as the average for all jobs. Many job openings will occur due to the need to replace dispatchers who leave for other positions or retire from the profession.

Security guards for private companies will see employment increase 2 percent through 2033, which is slower than the average. Demand will be driven by an uptick in the number of casinos as legalized gambling increases. However, "advances in remote monitoring technology, such as cameras integrated with artificial intelligence (AI), to prevent cheating may limit the employment of some security guards and gambling surveillance officers and investigators," the DOL explains.

Private detectives are expected to have good employment opportunities, with 5 percent employment growth through 2033, which is as fast as the average. The DOL says the factors driving this demand include interpersonal mistrust, fraud, lawsuits, and other crimes, as well as the need to conduct in-person background checks.