CHICAGO (AP) — A CareerBuilder report on the outlook for job growth sees a strengthening labor market with good-paying career opportunities from 2013 to 2017.

CareerBuilder's Brent Rasmussen says, "Overall job growth for the next four years is going to be strong." His firm's projections are for the workforce to grow by 4.4 percent, with the strongest growth at both ends of the wage scale -- high-paying and entry-level positions. Jobs in the middle are expected to have the least growth. CareerBuilder sees health care and infotech as the occupations with the top prospects for growth. They include software developers, registered nurses, network and computer systems administrators and market research analysts.

Rasmussen says college degrees "are going to become mandatory" to get a job at "the high end of the economy." The fastest job growth is projected in several key metro areas -- the Texas cities of Austin, Houston and San Antonio, as well as Raleigh, N.C., and Phoenix. And CareerBuilder says Washington, D.C., is poised to have "the largest share of new jobs coming from the high-wage sector."

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