16 High-Income Skills to Learn in 2025

With new trends, tools, and technology come the urgency to learn new skills. We've seen a boom in the AI space the last couple of years, which is resulting in many people looking to expand their skill set to remain a valuable part of the workforce. Having the right skills enable you to continue to earn money as industries change. Many skills are in high demand, and you can learn all of them with a little patience, practice, and the right resources. You don't need to have web development skills today to become a web developer. You could start learning them today though. Many high-income skills can be learned through bootcamps and books. In this article, you'll find examples of high-income skills you should consider learning in 2025.

16 High-Income Skills to Learn in 2025

1. Generative AI

With more businesses turning to AI skills and machine learning to help them become more efficient, knowing how to use generative AI will help you become more productive at work. The skills of knowing graphic design and writing are still valuable, despite the surge in popularity in generative AI. Yet, knowing how to use tools like Chat GPT and Claude can help you come up with new ideas, help you create content like videos, pictures, and written text, and you could use it as an assistant in your day-to-day work.

Conversational AI Designer - $149, 428

Machine Learning Engineer - $114,276

Generative AI Annotator - $107,641

AI Marketing - $95, 817

Prompt Engineer - $87,476

2. Digital Marketing

Now more than ever marketing is becoming more important and in high demand. Why? Because more businesses are creating content, features, and products than ever before. With the help of AI, businesses can now produce more work than they've done historically. But with that comes a wild amount of competition. And knowing digital marketing skills will help you separate yourself from the pack, give your tools and features a high enough volume of viewers and visitors, and get you the sales you need to flourish over the long haul.

Product Marketing Manager - $91,418

Marketing Operations Manager - $89,217

Growth Marketing Manager - $88,388

Marketing Communications Manager - $79,475

Performance Marketing Manager - $76, 212

3. Data Science

Data analysis is a hard skill you need to learn in 2025. Knowing how to read data, create reports, and use popular data analytics tools will help you elevate to a higher level in your career. This high income skill can play a role in some of the biggest industries, such as marketing and AI. You need to have the kind of mindset that allows for continuous learning as it'll only make you better at finding the right opportunities for the businesses you work on.

Data Architect - $110, 953

Data Engineer - $90,731

AI Data Scientist - $89, 679

Business Intelligence Analyst - $72,984

Statistician - $71,610

4. Communication

High income skills to learn aren't always about the industry you work in, sometimes it's all about your personality and how you carry yourself. Whether or not you elevate in your career will depend on the quality of your soft skills. And communication skills pop up at the top of every employer's dream list. Learning how to communicate with gravitas will help you present yourself to your boss and your peers more favorably. You could take an online course in learning how to be a better communicator, work with an executive coach, or read books about communication to help you tweak how you communicate. Accents, communication styles, and voice pitches often require some voice work to help you present yourself as a thoughtful and impactful leader.

Chief Executive Officer - $185, 756

Public Speaker - $84, 355

Sales Executive - $90, 437

Consultant - $80,599

Communications Manager - $85, 841

5. Negotiation

Knowing how to negotiate is a skill that will help you throughout your career. You might need to know how to negotiate to get pay raises, to work on the projects you'd like to do, to keep the peace at work, and in some cases, to even save someone's life. These might not be the skills on your resume, but they'll be noticeable to people when you have them. Negotiating isn't just asking someone for what you want, but persuading them into thinking this is a good idea. It's also one of those interpersonal skills that you should carry with you in your back pocket. You'll often see that people with great management skills often do know how to negotiate.

Contract Negotiator - $93, 419

Hostage Negotiator - $96, 193

Union Negotiator - $88, 447

Credit Negotiator - $75, 265

New Home Sales Consultant - $74, 071

6. Sales

Skills like sales can allow you to earn a lot of money. You might be someone who's convincing an investor to invest in your business or a search engine optimization agency trying to convince someone to become your next client. Sales skills can include everything from your ability to persuade to your ability to solve people's problems with what you present to them as an offer. Sales is one of the high-income skills worth learning, and it's one many people are afraid to learn. The fear of rejection prevents people from ever learning this skill. But by learning sales, you'll actually notice rejection won't even phase you with practice. You'll get better for optimizing for the yes.

Vice President of Sales - $130, 391

Real Estate Agent - $121, 187

Sales Manager - $76, 442

Direct Sales Representative - $72, 736

Pharmaceutical Sales Representative - $71, 452

7. Coding

Even though AI can help you write code, knowing how to code, debug issues, and create things using programming languages can help you find a successful career. Whether it's web development or any other development skills, you could create products, tools, features, and more to help you build new businesses or generate more income for the business you work in. The job market will need programmers and those who can code to help their businesses meet their customers demands and resolve bugs that pop up from the code they create. You don't even need a high school diploma for a career on this path. You could complete a 3-month bootcamp to become a full-stack developer and learn the technical skills by creating projects using the languages you learn. Many high-income jobs require some coding skills making this one of the most profitable skills you could learn.

Cloud Architect - $142, 806

DevOps Engineer - $126, 179

Fullstack Developer - $113, 600

Database Developer - $107, 838

Systems Administrator - $104, 304

8. Robotics

AI is a segment of robotics. And yet, robotics companies are shaping up to eventually do bigger things. Traditionally, most robots have been used in factories and warehouses to improve efficiency. Yet, more robotics companies have been popping up to create robots for space companies, household use, and so much more. Robotics is a high income skill you'll want to learn to help prepare you for the future. If you're looking for an up and coming industry, this is the one to go for. Make informed decisions about how you learn robotics. You could do a self-guided robotics technician program at a trade school or you could buy robot kits at home to help you learn robotics on your own.

Computer Scientist - $107, 614

Robotics Engineer - $107, 080

Mechanical Engineer - $89, 424

Robotics Programmer - $78, 050

Robotics Technician - $57, 491

9. Project Management

Project management skills are worthwhile if you like organizing and managing projects. A project manager tracks timelines and deliverables to ensure projects get shipped on time and produce the anticipated results expected. They help prioritize tasks, manage resources, and keep everything moving forward as planned.

Project Executive - $141, 500

PMO Consultant - $116,000

PMP Project Manager - $107, 500

IT Project Manager - $134, 723

Financial Project Manager - $72, 434

10. Leadership

Leadership skills are high-income skills worth learning. Those with savvy leadership skills will likely find and enjoy lots of career growth. They'll be able to transition into roles as directors, vice-presidents, and eventually the C-suite. Those with these high-income skills need the perfect combination of hard and soft skills to advance in their careers. And when they develop high income skills like leadership, they'll see big financial rewards and pay increases with every level up. The core skills might include communication, active listening, relationship building, critical thinking, foresight and vision, negotiation, conflict management, team motivation, and more. And these combination of high-value skills help advance your career.

Tax Manager - $101, 318

Finance Manager - $93, 964

Product Manager - $91, 458

Human Resources Manager - $78, 664

Production Manager - $75, 242

11. Public Speaking

Public speaking is a sought after skill with high income potential. You'll see public speakers in a political arena where people actively debate each other trying to convince the other party of their point of view. You'll see a public speaker on stage selling a dream or idea with a call-to-action to buy their product at the end of the presentation. You'll see a public speaker at a company town hall sharing cool projects they've worked on and plan to work on in the coming months. Public speaking has so many layers of hard and soft skills rolled in one allowing someone who can speak well to others to command a room and the growth of their bank accounts.

Podcast host - $73, 300

Politician - $174, 000

Keynote speaker - $50, 890

Online instructor - $73, 448

Corporate trainer - $61, 011

12. Graphic Design

One of the skills to learn in 2025 is graphic design. With more people turning to MidJourney you might think design skills don't matter anymore. But if you've used AI, you'll likely notice that they often find mistakes that giveaway that the designs were made with AI. A professional graphic designer still has a job in this job market. You might work in social media marketing or advertising creating designs for marketers. You could work in the publishing world designing book covers for authors. You'll known the design principles that allow you to apply what you learn into your work to create effective designs that help you earn more. Graphic design is one of the best high-income skills. After all, most people buy a book for it's cover. So buying decisions can come from a direct result of how a design looks.

Concept artist - $103, 465

Creative director - $103, 135

Visual designer - $81, 751

Video game designer - $76, 887

Digital designer - $71, 031

13. UX/UI Designer

You can increase your income by learning user experience or user interface skills. As one of the best high-income skills to learn UX and UI designers often have high salaries because their work helps more people navigate websites to help lead to higher conversions. You might be testing conversions on a top navigation menu and playing around with the order of the design to get people to click on the most profitable company pages. These skills are increasingly popular in the ecommerce and tech space. You'll need analytical skills, design skills, and technical skills to help create the right user experience for your customers.

User experience designer - $145, 615

Lead designer - $140, 433

Product designer - $101, 574

Front-end developer - $92, 044

User interface designer - $85, 180

14. Public Relations

Public relations is one of those high value skills that doesn't only help you get a job but can also help you personally. Knowing how to position a brand, deal with a crisis professionally, and how to communicate on behalf of a business can help you in a career path as a public relations or communications profession or should you embark on a solo path, such as influencer marketing or in your own business. Learning how to present yourself to the world can help you create professional content online allowing you to become a successful thought leader.

Chief Public Relations Officer - $114, 044

Public Relations Director - $109, 747

Crisis Communications Consultant - $77,720

Brand Manager - $71,197

Public Relations Manager - $70,097

15. Budget Management

Budget management is a great skill to have, particularly for those in finance or leadership roles managing budgets. However, beyond work, this is also a great life skill to have for your own personal finances. This high-income skill will allow you to learn how to spend less than you earn. You might eventually decide to learn how to invest your money or other monetary good practices because you've gotten your own personal finances in order. Knowing how to balance your books as a leader or accountant can also help you in your career. If you make your team too efficient, you risk not getting enough budget in the next year when you might need it. However, if you spend too much, you'll risk being demoted or terminated. Thus, making these specialized skills an important one to learn.

Chief Financial Officer - $231, 906

Controller - $113, 694

Financial Planner - $89, 915

Budget Analyst - $73, 089

Chartered Accountant - $66,881

16. Language Proficiency

Being multilingual is a high-income skill. Many people who can speak in many languages can work in government roles. Many governments actually encourage learning multiple languages in school for children. For example, children in Canada are taught to communicate in English and French. There are even French immersion schools, where children learn science and other skills in French as well. Outside of North America, many countries teach English to help their citizens flourish in their eventual careers. These in-demand skills can get you jobs in other countries, set you up with a government job, or allow you to find it easy to travel internationally for business or pleasure.

President - $180, 462

Foreign Service Officer - $88,174

Bilingual Elementary Teacher - $79,007

Freelance Translator - $70,613

Immigration Officer - $66,210

What other best high income skills are there?

• Skills like data analysis
• Skills in financial modeling
• Skills in video production
• SEO skills
• Cloud computing skills
• Production skills
• Soft skills like active listening or teamwork
• Content marketing skills
• Transferable skills like creativity or problem-solving

Conclusion

Learning high-income skills like digital marketing or project management or any of the other skills on this list can help set you up with a financially rewarding career. Having a combination of hard skills and soft skills will help propel you up high as you advance in your career. Don't falsely assume that your hard skills are the only skills to develop. Soft skills command high salaries too. You can use LinkedIn learning, Coursera, or a popular bootcamp to help you learn the soft and hard skills to advance your career. To start building a resume using these skills, you can sign-up for Huntr today.