Mail carriers, lumberjacks, travel agents, farmers and newspaper reporters all share one common career trait: their jobs are quickly disappearing.
A new report lists the most endangered jobs of 2014 and each of those is in the top five.
The top is postal worker or mail career and the hiring outlook is expected to dip 28 percent given the proliferation of online communication.
"As our society gains more and easier access to web connectivity, the decline in postal jobs over the coming decade is expected to be severe," states a new CareerCast report, which includes a statement from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"Employment will be adversely affected by the decline in first-class mail volume due to increasing use of automated bill pay and email," the BLS reports.
Farmers are next on the list with job outlook declining nearly 20 percent. The culprit is technology. What is interesting, though, is that farmers' median annual salary beats mail carriers by almost $10,000.
Meter readers are next on the list with a dip in hiring at 19 percent. The reason?
"The implementation of remote-viewable meter readers allows utility companies to compile customer usage data without sending workers to the site. As these grow in popularity, fewer meter readers are needed in the coming years," states the career outlook report.
Newspaper reporters don't have a great career outlook, either, with a 13 percent decline in hiring.
"Declining subscriptions and dwindling advertising sales have negatively impacted the hiring power of some newspapers, while others have ceased operations altogether. Online outlets continue to replace traditional newspapers, and the long-term outlook for newspaper reporters reflects the change," states the report.
And wrapping up the top five is the job of travel agent, which is being slowly eliminated by online and self-service options, and the job of lumberjack.
"Fewer travel agents are needed. Those in the field work more with those whose trips require special preparation, e.g., to other countries," notes the report.
The job of lumberjack is facing decline given technology and less wood pulp needed for paper products.
"To make room for the new, the old sometimes has to go. The job landscape is bustling with new opportunities in the information technology sector, but the proliferation of these distinctly 21st century jobs comes at the expense of other industries," notes a release on the report.
To see what other jobs are on the decline check out the 2014 Jobs Rated report.
