Police Officer Career Outlook

[asd_program_search_bar /] Choosing a career is a very important decision. One of the major things to factor in while doing so is how the future looks in the profession. The career outlook of any job is usually given by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Several factors come into play while predicting this including the future need for that profession and the spending nature of the employers. Let us look at the career prospects for a police officer.

As of 2014, there were about 806,000 jobs held by police officers. This is expected to rise by about 4% in the next 10 years. This growth rate is slower than the average of other jobs.  This means that about 33,000 new jobs will be created for police officers within the next decade. Since police officers are generally employed by the government, their employment largely depends on the political situation in the region. Some cities may want to spend more on police officers while others may want to direct their budget to other forms of development.

The number of police officers varies as per the state. The most populated states will thus have the most amount of job openings available for police officers. Places like Florida, New York, Texas and California have a great need for law enforcement. The salaries of police officers also depend on the size of the population they serve. Hence, the salary of someone working in these states is likely to be higher than that of others. The average salary of a police officer in 2011 was about $56,000 when working with the local government, while that of someone working at the sheriff’s office was around $60,000.
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The job has also seen growth in the number of women participating. Though there was a drop in the number of women working full time, there was an increase in the number of women working part-time. The main employers for police officers are the Local Government and the State Government. Higher level education institutes and the Federal Executive Branch are also hiring police officers by the masses.

The number of training academies is increasing and they vary depending on the region you are in. Same goes for the number of job openings. As mentioned before the salary also depends on the geographic location of the officer. You can find a list of states and their respective growth percentages with projected salaries. To get more information you can always visit Bureau of Labor Statistics. Police officers are one of the most carefully chosen employees. If you want to make a career in this competitive field, you must get started now!