What are the bankable jobs of the future?
Carer: An ageing population will mean more demand for residential and nursing care. Families will be too busy working to take on this role themselves. But with more women returning to work, childcare services will still be at a premium.
Financial adviser: Experts in financial planning can also expect to be busy, as workers finally realise they need to prepare for retirement.
Home handyman: Technological handymen - and women - will be in big demand for all our gadgets and their fiddly bits, as will technical consultants, computer systems designers and software publishers, according to US Department of Labor statistics.
Linguist: Though the number of languages in the world is shrinking, Mandarin has almost one billion speakers - nearly a sixth of the world's population. But nearly all are native speakers, and few outside China speak it as a second language. So it's reasonable to assume most of us will need help with our Chinese by 2025.
"Pharmer": Gene therapy could prevent a variety of diseases, including cancers. And farmers could become "pharmers", growing crops and raising animals that have been engineered to create therapeutic products.
Homeopath: On the other hand, there will always be those of us who prefer to keep things simple for enhancing our health. Herbalists, acupuncturists and health food shopkeepers face a bright future, as the "wellness industry" is expected to swell from 1 billion today to 5 billion by 2010.
Recruitment consultant: In the US, employment services is predicted to grow by 54.3 per cent, to account for almost two-thirds of all new jobs in administrative services. With the two big growth areas - computer and healthcare occupations - requiring both specific and extensive qualifications and experience, matching the right person to the job will be a valued skill.