If you think you’ll be looking for a job way off in the year 2020, you might want to consider the health care profession.
According to a new report by Georgetown University, between 2010 and 2020, health care and social assistance jobs are projected to grow by 30 percent in Oregon. That translates into more than 32,000 professional and technical jobs and more than 18,000 in support areas, the report said.
“In terms of opportunities and where jobs are available, health care professional and technical jobs are a good bet,” said Nicole Smith, a senior economist at the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce and one of the lead authors of the report, which tracks job growth nationwide.
Several factors are driving the expansion in health care, including the fact that per capita spending in that area is higher in the U.S. than other countries, along with high obesity rates and an aging population. Health care currently represents 18 percent of GDP.
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“Health care will lead the charge and pull us out of the recession and take us to a level of employment that’s sustainable,” Smith said.
While health care support jobs are growing fast in Oregon, wages in that area are not, Smith said. Those jobs, which have minimal education requirements, include nurses aids, orderlies, home health care aides and nursing home workers. A large component of that workforce is foreign born and often barely makes minimum wage.
“It’s growing fast and there are very few well created opportunities to advance if you’re in a health care support occupation,” Smith said.
In terms of professional health care jobs, those are mostly nurses, as well as stenographers and technicians, such as those who operate an X-ray machine or Cat Scan. Because those jobs often require an associate’s degree, as well as some sort of certification, Georgetown is forecasting a shortage of educated workers to fill those jobs.
Date: Jun 26, 2013