20 fast-growing, high-paying jobs where you only need an associate's degree

Some jobs typically need an associate's degree, such as paralegals or physical therapy assistants.

Insider was interested in looking at jobs that not only pay at least the median annual wage but are projected to grow over the decade. To do this, we took the geometric mean of median annual wages in 2020 and projected employment growth from 2020 to 2030. Both of these datasets come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. We focused on jobs that are projected to see employment growth over the decade and that pay at least $41,950, or the median annual wage in 2020 per BLS data.

After ranking that list based on the geometric mean, where a higher value meant a higher spot in the ranking, we filtered out jobs so only those that typically need an associate's degree for entry were left. This educational requirements data is also from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The above occupations are all ones that typically require an associate's degree, are projected to see some kind of growth over the decade, and pay at least $41,950.

We also included on-the-job training for each occupation. Many of the 20 jobs above, however, don't require on-the-job training. BLS writes that those that don't need this kind of training mean "there is no additional occupation-specific training or preparation typically required to attain competency in the occupation."

The most recent employment projections use 2020 as the base year, when the pandemic devastated employment across industries in the US. That means the employment projections were also affected.

"Many industries are expected to experience cyclical recoveries in the earlier part of the projections decade as industry output and employment normalize, returning to their long-term growth patterns," BLS wrote in a news release. "Projected robust growth for industries in which employment fell in 2020 also is projected to result in strong growth for the occupations employed by those industries."