Healthcare Jobs Demand Reaches All Time High
Jobs in the health care industry have seen a sharp increase over the last few years. Several factors explain the increased demand for health care workers, including the rising age of the baby boomer generation. Health care facilities are working hard to find enough qualified applicants to fill all of the positions available. The higher demand has led to higher wages in some areas of the health care field. Current health care employees are also struggling to meet the higher demands of an increased work load.
Growth Outpacing Other Sectors – While the health care job market has risen dramatically since 2007, the rest of the job markets combined have dropped almost the same amount. Health care jobs are up 6.3% since December 2007. Jobs that are not related to health care have dropped 6.8% in the same amount of time. Statistics show that the increase in health care work has sustained the weak job market and masked some of the damage that has occurred in overall employment rates. Today, health care employment makes up a little more than 10% of the entire employment in the United States.
Demand Expected to Plateau – Analysts believe that the health care job demand is going to reach a plateau sometime in the next few years. The jobs will still be available and demand will still be at a high point, but the rate of increasing jobs should slow down as more people finish health care training programs and begin to step into the roles that have gone unfilled. Some branches in the healthcare sector have begun to branch out into different roles and fields, such that for the best jobs for nurses are no longer confined to just the hospital halls and clinics but now have opportunities to pursue in other areas. The rise of health care employment opportunities should level off with the rest of the employment market as the overall economy improves and other sectors begin to hire more employees once again.
Reasons for Rising Demands – One reason that health care employment is expected to stay at this high rate for the foreseeable future is because much of the demand on the health care system is due to an aging population. The Baby Boomer generation is beginning to reach retirement age. Since a very large proportion of Americans are in this generation, that means that there is a growing number of aging individuals who require health care. The system was not prepared for such a quick boost in demand and is trying to catch up. Once the health care system has the workers in place to deal with the growing number of older patients, demand will become more manageable.
Taking Advantage of the Trend – This is the best time to begin training for a career in a health care related field. Geriatric medicine will be particularly important during the next decade. You can earn a certificate or degree that allows you to work in a medical office in as little as two years. If you want to work with patients, nursing programs are generally completed in about four years. Health care related work includes handling reception desks, bookkeeping, and many other tasks that are not specific to medicine. The health care field needs more workers in all areas of expertise.
