Healthcare jobs predicted to grow at swift rate

Despite the recent economic downturn, jobs in healthcare grew while jobs in other sectors declined, according to a new report by the nonprofit Center for Health Workforce Studies at the University at Albany School of Public Health.

Researchers based their findings on numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which projects that between 2010 and 2020, jobs in the healthcare sector will grow by 30 percent – more than twice as fast as the general economy and consistent with findings from previous analyses conducted by the center.

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In March, healthcare employment continued to grow, adding 26,000 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Within the industry, offices of physicians and hospitals each added 8,000 jobs over the month. 

Earlier findings by the bureau highlighted the growing market for medical records and health information technicians, projecting a 21 percent growth from 2010 to 2020. The rate of growth for computer and information systems manager for the same period is projected at 18 percent.

Demand for health IT and health information managers has been driven by government incentives and requirements under the meaningful use program and the upcoming conversion from the ICD-9 to ICD-10 medical coding sets.

Other key findings from the center’s analysis:

• While total U.S. employment dropped by more than 2 percent between 2000 and 2010, healthcare employment grew by more than 25 percent during the same period.
• More than 13 percent of the U.S. labor force worked in the health sector or in a health occupation (19 million jobs out of 143 million jobs in U.S. labor force).
• The healthcare sector is projected to add more than 4.2 million jobs between 2010 and 2020, with 63 percent of those in ambulatory settings (offices of health practitioners, home health, and other non-institutional settings).
• Registered nurses, home health aides, and personal care aides are among the occupations nationally projected to have the largest job growth between 2010 and 2020, adding more than 2 million jobs, with another 700,000 job openings due to vacancies from attrition.