Healthcare Careers

Health care will generate 3 million new wage and salary jobs between 2006 and 2016, more than any other industry. Seven of the twenty fastest growing occupations are health care related. Job opportunities should be good in all employment settings.

Employment change. Wage and salary employment in the health care industry is projected to increase 22 percent through 2016, compared with 11 percent for all industries combined (table 3). Employment growth is expected to account for about 3 million new wage and salary jobs—20 percent of all wage and salary jobs added to the economy over the 2006-16 period. Projected rates of employment growth for the various segments of the industry range from 13 percent in hospitals, the largest and slowest growing industry segment, to 55 percent in the much smaller home health care services.

Table 3. Employment in health care by industry segment, 2006 and projected change, 2006-16
(Employment in thousands)

Industry segment	2006 Employment	2006-16 Percent change
Health services, total	13,621	21.7
Hospitals, public and private	5,438	13.0
Nursing and residential care facilities	2,901	23.7
Offices of physicians	2,154	24.8
Home health care services	867	55.4
Offices of dentists	784	22.4
Offices of other health practitioners	571	28.3
Outpatient care centers	489	24.3
Other ambulatory health care services	216	32.3
Medical and diagnostic laboratories	202	16.8

Employment in health care will continue to grow for several reasons. The number of people in older age groups, with much greater than average health care needs, will grow faster than the total population between 2006 and 2016; as a result, the demand for health care will increase. Employment in home health care and nursing and residential care should increase rapidly as life expectancies rise, and as aging children are less able to care for their parents and rely more on long-term care facilities. Advances in medical technology will continue to improve the survival rate of severely ill and injured patients, who will then need extensive therapy and care. New technologies will make it possible to identify and treat conditions that were previously not treatable. Medical group practices and integrated health systems will become larger and more complex, increasing the need for office and administrative support workers. Industry growth also will occur as a result of the shift from inpatient to less expensive outpatient and home health care because of improvements in diagnostic tests and surgical procedures, along with patients� desires to be treated at home.

Click Here For More