Great Jobs Outlook

The primary care crisis is the elephant in the room when discussing health care staffing. However, other clinical and technical professionals are also vital to operational success at hospitals and other facilities.


According to the recent report by the president's Council of Economic Advisors, the long-term trend shows increasing prospects in the health care field, including the occupations of medical records and health information technicians, registered nurses, clinical laboratory technicians and physical therapists. The subsectors of nursing homes, physician offices and hospitals should also continue to grow. Home health care, outpatient care and medical and diagnostic laboratories are some of the subsectors expected to add the most jobs. (See DM9635.)

The health care field is a great place to be employed. Education and health services, taken together in government data, is an industry supersector projected to grow 18.8% by 2016, and add more jobs, nearly 5.5 million, than any other industry supersector. More than three out of every ten new jobs created in the U.S. economy will be in either the health care and social assistance, or public and private educational services sectors.

Health care and social assistance-including public and private hospitals, nursing and residential care facilities, and individual and family services-will grow by 25.4% and add 4 million new jobs, according to the Department of Labor's Tomorrow's Jobs report. Employment growth will be driven by increasing demand for health care because of an aging population and longer life expectancies.

Nursing Shortage Eases, Temporarily

Nursing remains at the center of health care provision in many settings and the shortage persists. While the economic downturn has motivated many retired nurses to return to the field, as reported in Health Affairs in June, the problem is not over. In 2007 and 2008 the ranks of America's nurses grew by about a quarter million. That's a relief, but this injection of talent won't be enough to address a long-term nursing deficit that will be caused by retiring baby boomers, according to the study's authors.

While the seminal BLS data was compiled before the recent recession, it reflects the intractability of the nursing shortage well into the future. We will need 587,000 more nurses by 2016, a 23.5% increase in a decade. That is not counting those positions that need replacing due to retirement. So while the recent swelling of the nursing ranks from a poor economy has slowed the demand a bit, overall, the nursing crisis continues not only because the professionals are aging, but because the patient base is also aging and will demand more care.

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