Are you looking for a job? Have one but want a better one? Thinking about changing careers?
Job-finding website CareerBuilder recently came out with a list of what it says will be the fastest-growing jobs in Nebraska over the next five years.
It will hardly be a surprise to most people, but the medical field dominates when it comes to forecast job growth over the next five years.
According to CareerBuilder, three of the top four and four of the top six fastest-growing high-wage jobs will be in the medical field, with physical therapist coming in first, nurse practitioner second, physician assistant fourth and respiratory therapist sixth.
Health care jobs also dominate the mid-wage and low-wage categories, taking up six of the top eight spots in the mid-wage category and two of the top three for low-wage jobs.
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The good news for the Cornhusker State is that high-wage jobs are predicted to see the most growth, at 6 percent, over the next five years, with 4 percent growth forecast for both mid- and low-range.
Lincoln has low startup costs
Of the fastest-growing high-wage jobs, the highest-ranking non-medical one is software developer, at No. 3.
The good news for startup founders, is that software developers and other high-tech employees cost a lot less in Lincoln than in many other places.
The website put together a list of the Top 25 cities in U.S. for startup purchasing power, and Lincoln ranked 11th.
According to the ranking, $1 million in venture capital raised in Lincoln would have the purchasing power of $1.67 million compared with San Francisco.
Some examples of costs in Lincoln compared with San Francisco:
$72,000 annual salary for an engineer, compared with $137,000;
$62,000 a year for administration and sales costs compared with $85,000;
$300 for a dedicated co-working desk vs. $700;
Omaha ranked 16th on the list with $1.61 million in purchasing power.
El Paso, Texas, was the cheapest market, with nearly $2 million in purchasing power for $1 million raised.
You can compare various cities at
Above-ask home sales declining
Home prices in Lincoln surged for much of 2018, but an analysis from Zillow shows that they started slowing down late in the year.
The analysis measure the percentage of houses that sold for more than the original asking price. For all of 2018, that figure was 31.5 percent, up slightly from 30.5 percent in 2017. The median sale amount over list price was about $3,000, or 1.63 percent.
However, the percentage of local homes selling for more than asking fell in the last months of the year. It was 23.3 percent in November and 21.2 percent in December, according to Zillow.
The Lincoln area's rate of above-list price home sales was considerably higher than the national average, which was 23.5 percent last year, up from 22.7 percent in 2017.
In December, the national rate was 19 percent, down from 21 percent in December.
Listing the lists
Regular readers of this column know I sometimes like to end it with a rundown of recent high rankings of Lincoln and/or Nebraska in national reports. Here are the latest ones:
* 11th-best city to get out of credit card debt ()
*12th-easiest state to get help with filing taxes ()
Best of the Buzz
Excerpts from recent Biz Buzz posts:
* South 48th Bistro opened last month at 48th Street and Nebraska 2. It's open Sundays and Tuesday-Thursday from 11 a.m.-9 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m.-10 p.m. For more information, go to:
* Yia Yia's Pizza and Beer is planning to open a second location later this month at 70th and Van Dorn streets. The restaurant, which has its original location at 1423 O St., said on its Facebook page that it hopes to be open by late February.
* Brakes Plus has filed a $1 million building permit for a site at 1510 Pine Lake Road, making it the fourth and final business to occupy the new retail development just west of Costco
A Panera Bread is now open at the site, Panda Express is under construction and Cattle Bank & Trust plans to start construction this spring on a bank branch.
Go to to read more Biz Buzz posts.
Have a business news tip? Send it to businessnews@journalstar.com.