by
Thomas Dworetzky, Contributing Reporter | July 18, 2015
If you think the surging stock market has been hot, it's arctic compared to the feverish pace of growth in the health care industry job market — and the demand is making workers confident about finding better jobs.
The industry grew by 40,000 new jobs in June, according to the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, just a bit under the 48,000 jobs added in May — but still a big number. And in the past year, health care has grown by 430,000 jobs.
At this rate, said the Bureau of Labor Statistics in
an employment projection looking at 2012-2022 for occupations and industries related to health care, "total employment is projected to increase 10.8 percent, or 15.6 million, during the decade."
As the Washington Post Daily Briefing's
Dan Diamond put it this month, "The health care industry has gained more jobs in the past three months than the entire U.S. economy gained from 2001-2004."
A recently released
survey by Health eCareers takes a deeper dive into the health care employment picture, noting, "with an increased demand for health care services being driven by everything from the Affordable Care Act to an aging baby boomer population, health care professionals are shouldering more responsibility than ever before."
Despite the rosy employment picture and solid salaries, the pollsters found that, "nearly half (45 percent) of health care professionals surveyed say they have not received a pay increase in the past year, and another 14 percent are actually making less than they were a year ago."
This convergence of demand and flat wages has made workers bullish on job prospects, and they're looking to better their situations "with 68 percent reporting they would change employers for higher pay."
The study gathered information from more than 28,000 professionals. On average it found the following average nationwide yearly pay levels for different positions:
- Physicians across the country earn: $249,353,
- Health care executives earn: $154,573,
- Physician assistants earn: $101,528,
- Nurse practitioners earn: $95,531,
- Healthcare IT professionals earn: $89,247
- Dieticians earn: $51,813,
- Allied health professionals earn: $42,171.
Specialization impacts earnings as well. For example, family medicine nurses reportedly make $86,349 a year, but cardiology nurses earn $78,607. Cardiology physicians make $359,044. Family medicine doctors earn $177,053.
Also of note, the researcher discovered that nonprofit employees generally do better than their for-profit counterparts.
Strikingly, the survey showed that professionals do not feel they are being rewarded with raises, with 59 percent saying they make the same or even less than a year ago. And over 40 percent say their pay is not commensurate with their experience.
The bottom line? Workers in the field are looking at a job seeker's market, and with flat wages loyalty is low and the incentive to move on high. The survey found that 86 percent are confident they could get a better job in a year or less and 34 percent anticipate changing employment this year.
