Employment in the healthcare industry grew steadily last year, with no signs of slowing down in 2016, according to Health eCareers' newly released 2015 Year Over Year Healthcare Jobs Snapshot.
New healthcare positions accounted for 475,000, or 18 percent, of the 2.7 million jobs added to the U.S. economy in 2015, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Hospital hiring was particularly robust, growing by 172,000 positions and accounting for 36 percent of total healthcare jobs created.
And with experts predicting further increases in the number of Americans enrolling in health insurance coverage in 2016, providers anticipate adding jobs to meet the growing needs of patients and the increased demand for healthcare services.
Here are six findings from the snapshot.
1. Using Health eCareers' website, 6,998 employers recruited healthcare professionals through 183,901 job postings in 2015.
2. Year over year, opportunities increased for physicians/surgeons, physician assistants and nurse practitioners. Employers posted more than 100,000 physician/surgeon jobs on Health eCareers in 2015, up 15 percent from 2014. Physician assistant and nurse
practitioner opportunities also saw impressive growth, increasing 17 percent and 7 percent, respectively.
3. Quarter over quarter, opportunities for nurses increased significantly, with 1,516 more jobs posted on Health eCareers for nurses in the fourth quarter of 2015 than in the third quarter.
4. The top 10 states for healthcare jobs in 2015 as illustrated by Health eCareers employer job postings were, in descending order, Texas, California, Pennsylvania, Florida, New York, Washington, Illinois, Virginia, Georgia and Ohio.
5. The top four specialties by percentage of total job postings on Health eCareers in 2015 were:
- Physician/surgeon (55 percent)
- Nursing (15 percent)
- Nurse practitioner (9 percent)
- Physician assistant (7 percent)
6. The top three physician specialties for healthcare jobs in 2015 as illustrated by Health eCareers employer job postings were general family medicine, internal medicine and emergency medicine.
More articles on workforce and labor management:
California, New York governors sign bills to raise minimum wage to $15 an hour: 10 things to know
NLRB will prosecute Nathan Littauer Hospital over locked out nurses
Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital nurses vote to unionize