U.S. healthcare employment grows an extraordinary 20 percent while other sectors fall short

In a report by the University at Albany's Center for Health Workforce Studies (CHWS), healthcare jobs grew 20 percent between 2004 and 2014, and the trend is expected to continue as the healthcare industry is projected to grow faster than many other industries over the next decade.

While the healthcare job market increased 20 percent, other sectors fell short by only achieving three percent growth over the same time period. The report based its findings on an analysis of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) 2014 – 2024 projections. The report notes that over the next decade, between 2014 and 2024, healthcare jobs will continue to grow by nearly 22 percent while all other sectors lag behind at only five percent growth.

"Our analysis finds that while employment in the health care sector has seen more modest job growth since the previous period, it has outpaced growth in all other employment sectors," said Robert Martiniano, senior program manager at CWHS. "Additionally, 13 percent of employment in the United States in 2014 was related to health care – either employment in health care settings or health care practitioners working outside of health care."

In their analysis of healthcare employment, the report examined hospitals, nursing homes, home healthcare, and offices of health practitioners separately in order to understand the BLS projections specific to healthcare as well as assessing current and future employment growth for 99 health occupations.

The report listed that between 2014 and 2024:

• 20 of the 30 fastest-growing occupations nationally are projected to be in healthcare occupations, including occupational therapy assistants (43 percent), physical therapy assistants (41 percent), physical therapy aides (39 percent), home health aides (38 percent), and nurse practitioners (35 percent);
• Personal care aides (458,100), registered nurses (439,300), home health aides (348,400), nursing assistants (262,000), and medical assistants (138,900) position are projected to grow the most;
• Nearly 440,000 new registered nurse (RN) jobs are expected to be added, while more than 600,000 existing RN jobs will need to be filled due to RNs leaving these positions; and
• More than 400,000 physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and nurse midwives will be needed to fill new and existing positions.

Results also showed a decline in jobs for non-healthcare workers in the healthcare sector, such as food service workers or janitorial staff.

"Over 500,000 non-health occupation jobs in health care settings were lost between 2008 and 2014," according to Jean Moore, CHWS Director. "We believe this decline is related to a number of factors, including mergers or consolidations, outsourcing, and transitioning staff and services to ambulatory settings. In some instances, the declines may represent actual job loss while in other instances it may represent jobs moving into other employment sectors."