Everyone has been buzzing about the different careers featured in U.S. News and World Report’s Best Careers of 2008 piece.  Since I’m going to be doing my fair share of talking about cool jobs come the spring, I thought I would highlight some of the more interesting observations that writer Marty Nemko makes about forthcoming career trends:

Blue collar is hip again. More and more students are graduating from college at the same time that employers are offshoring more professional jobs. So, many holders of a bachelor's degree are having trouble finding jobs that require college-graduate skills. Meanwhile, society has been telling high school students that college is the way, so there's an accelerating shortage of skilled people in jobs that don't require college. Why else do you think you have to pay $100 an hour for a plumber?

Government is becoming an employer of choice. Corporations, fueled by pressures to compete globally, continue to get ever leaner. Nonprofits are increasingly strapped because of donor fatigue and continued scandals. Government, beneficiary of increased tax revenues in good times and often able to raise taxes in bad times, has the luxury of continually paying employees well, whether it's an economically sound practice or not. As the last bastion of job security, government offers good pay, ample sick days, holidays, vacation days, health insurance, and retirement benefits.

Beware of increased offshoring. Well-publicized failures of offshoring may have led the public to think that companies are reducing its use. In fact, companies are quietly increasing offshoring efforts, even jobs previously considered to be better left in the United States: innovation and marketing research, for example. As a result, U.S. News is publicizing careers like mediator and investment banker that companies will be less likely to offshore.

Status may be the enemy of contentment. It seems the pursuit of status is greater than ever. People are flocking in greater numbers to such high-status but unrewarding careers as medical research, medicine, and architecture. Yet recent surveys and other indicators of job satisfaction in those professions paint a less-than-rosy picture.