From HVAC to pest control, these 17 industries are booming, despite what people may think

In a recent post on the r/AskReddit subreddit, u/_Fossy_ asked, “What industry is booming way more than people think?” The responses in the comments covered some that made sense, while others were a surprise.

1. Wastewater treatment

“Wastewater treatment. S*** doesn’t go away.” —u/Sad-Math-2039

“I work in the Civil Engineering industry. Wastewater treatment is not only a booming industry, but it’s insanely hard to find wastewater engineers! I think they’ve got like a .5% unemployment rate or something insane, maybe even lower.” —u/gakule

2. Data centers

“Data centers are so desperate for energy they want their own nuclear reactors.” —u/MakesYourMise

“I work for a major transformer supplier as an engineer, and I design the pad-mounted ones. We are pumping out transformers as fast as we physically can, but our order backlog is so long that it is being measured in YEARS. Imagine ordering a PS5 and the projected shipping date is 2-4 years later.” —u/RedlightGrnlight

Doing some data center work one day. Ask what the 8 smaller buildings outside are for, cuz they look like generator houses. They were way bigger than the mines, and there were 8 of them. The utility literally cannot supply them with enough power, so they’re just gonna make their own. Blew my mind.” —u/Masochist_pillowtalk

3. E-commerce packaging

“Packaging in general with e-commerce. Problem is it’s almost at a commodity level, so it’s a price and cost over design and performance.” —u/Innerouterself2

4. Battery storage

“Grid-scale battery storage, used to store excess electricity from wind and solar farms for use during peak demand. This industry is huge and is growing exponentially, especially as the cost of batteries continues to drop and demand increases.” —u/Routine_Biscotti_852

5. Pest control

“Pest control, quietly, has a 5-11% growth year over year. PE firms are buying the mom and pop shops like crazy, anything over 1m in revenue that shows a healthy business plan.” —u/shownoughjones

“PE firms will destroy this country lol – healthcare, veterinary clinics, chain restaurants, rental homes, retirement homes, etc, etc. The list of the growth in PE-backed industries is scary af.” —u/paper_plains

6. HVAC

“More areas where you used to get by just fine with an open window and a box fan are getting unbearably hot in the summers.” —u/lazermaniac

7. VPNs

“In the UK, the VPN business is red hot.” —u/driftwooddreams

“Dark fact to add, but so is UK data monitoring and IT around surveillance. Actual jobs have been created just managing it all.” —u/JP193

8. The pet industry

“Pet cremation.” —u/Long-Tip-5374

“Pet anything, actually. If you know how to source it you’ll make bank selling in western markets.” —u/tiankai

9. Reselling clothes

“The second-hand clothing resale industry. Everyone talks about fast fashion, but Vinted and thrift stores are quietly driving a huge economy.” —u/Much-Guide-8684

10. Mobile games

“$92.5 billion made in 2024, half of the entire video game industry.” —u/petes117

11. Data annotation

“Data labeling and annotation industry.” —u/think_suicidal

“THIS. There are literal petabytes of unstructured data out there, and data governance laws are only ever going to get stricter, not least because there is a real hunger from the top to classify, mine, and use this information.” —u/driftwooddreams

12. Used cars

“The used car market. I work on the back end in the commercial lending side for car dealerships. The tariffs (or threat of) on new cars have pushed used car prices towards ridiculous numbers. I occasionally show up at auctions to gauge market trends, and a 2017 VW Jetta with 133k miles hammered at $11k. Plus auction fees and transport, it’ll be $12k, and that’s before the dealer has done any repairs or made a dollar of profit.

“Pre-COVID, an 8-year-old Jetta would be $2k tops. But people keep paying it. My market share has risen about 40% since January.” —u/EnricoPalazz0

13. Sports betting

“As a big sports fan, I can’t believe how out of control it’s become. 10 years ago, it felt like it was a niche thing that your weird uncle did; now, you cannot go anywhere that has sports and not have it be a massive point of discussion. A large group of people, mostly men, are completely incapable of watching a sport now without having money on something or yammering about their parlay

I wish it were similar to cigarettes, where they can’t advertise it, or even regulated like alcohol, where you can’t show anyone actually partaking/’having fun’ in ads. It’s chipping the integrity of sports.” —u/FreezersAndWeezers

14. Hosting AI

“Energy, particularly electricity, due to AI demand. Electricity demand has been pretty slow and steady the past couple of decades due to better efficiency, but now AI has caused a huge spike.” —u/CrystalCrusader407

15. Board games

“Plastic minis and war games. Seriously, Games Workshop generates more revenue for the British economy than the entire fishing industry. It’s actually mad how much people will pay for that stuff when it’s so very cheap to make.” —u/NeonGran

16. Wellness tech

“Mental health and wellness technology, e.g., digital therapy apps, telepsychiatry, and wellness platforms.” —u/Former-Loan-4250

17. Storage units

“We’re basically paying rent for our junk to live a better life than we do.” —u/JahanzaibRj

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