20-Year Prospect
Life is risky. In fact, life has always been risky for human beings. But the good news is, the terrible things that can happen to us have, in the last few hundred years, become insurable.
Enter the actuary. So long as insurance companies exist to sell us policies we think we need to protect ourselves from unhappy accidents, these well-paid and mathematically gifted individuals will continue to be employed.
In fact, actuaries can look forward to more work in years to come, thanks to the Affordable Care Act and climate change and the ever-present possibility of global financial collapse and economic mayhem.
While you may rejoice in taking an interest in a career that isn't going the way of the dinosaur, may we point out a minor obstacle: there are, like, five actuaries in this country. Okay, that's an exaggeration. There are actually about 25,000 actuaries in the United States (source). Our point, however, is that there aren't many of these jobs out there, and the competition for them is fierce.
So, actuaries will still be around in twenty years. Yay! But you'll have to engage in gladiatorial combat with other actuarial hopefuls in order to secure a position. Boo!