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The Industry
Defined
The healthcare industry
is massive and encompasses people who work in almost every profession.
For the purposes of this channel however, we've limited the
scope to those careers where the work involves the caring for other
people in need of medical treatment, and those who manage the caregivers. This consists of
physicians and nurses, of course, but also includes therapists, technicians,
assistants, and related positions that can extend to such occupations
as hospital or clinic administrators.
About 545,000 establishments of widely varying sizes and
structures make up the health care
industry, according to the Occupational Outlook Handbook
by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau for Labor
Statistics (BLS). By far the greatest number of of
health care establishments (about 76 percent) are offices of
physicians, dentists, or other health practitioners.
However, although hospitals constitute only 2 percent of all
health care establishments, they employ 40 percent of all
workers.
In 2004, the BLS ranked healthcare as the largest
industry in the U.S. -- providing 13.5 million jobs,
including 13.1 million jobs for wage and salary workers and
about 411,000 jobs for the self-employed.
In addition to being the largest industry, healthcare
remains among the fastest-growing. According to BLS
projections, 8 of the top 20 fastest-growing occupations are in healthcare,
and the industry is also expected to lead in new wage and
salary job creation -- generating some 3.6 million between 2004 and 2014.
While the technology- and science-intensive industry
certainly has its share of very highly educated workers, in
fact it supports a wide range of jobs with varying
educational requirements. Most workers have jobs that require less than 4
years of college education, according to BLS,
although health diagnosing and
treating practitioners are among the most educated
workers.
Industry Outlook
According to the BLS, job opportunities
in healthcare should be excellent in all employment
settings because of high job turnover, particularly from the
large number of expected retirements and tougher immigration
rules that are slowing the numbers of foreign health care
workers entering the U.S. Wage and salary employment in the
health care industry is projected to increase 27 percent
through 2014, compared with 14 percent for all industries
combined. Employment growth is expected to account
for about 3.6 million new wage and salary jobs—19 percent of
all wage and salary jobs added to the economy over the
2004–14 period. Projected rates of employment growth for the
various segments of the industry range from 13 percent in
hospitals, the largest and slowest growing industry segment,
to 69 percent in the much smaller home health care services.
Source:
U.S. Department of Labor Bureau for Labor Statistics Career
Guide to Industries
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