9 out of 20 fastest growing jobs are in healthcare

Latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that nine of the top twenty fastest growing jobs from 2020 to 2030 will be in healthcare or related fields. There are several reasons for this. Primarily, it is a direct consequence of the aging population. Baby boomers are growing older and it is expected that by the year 2050 there will be 2.1 billion people over the age of 60. Predictions are that this will directly affect the creation of more than 1 million home health and personal care aide jobs. This is supported by job market findings that prop up this prediction with indications that the fastest growing health care job is home healthaide.

Another factor is the fact that the chronic conditions are on the rise. Approximately 47 percent of the U.S. population, 150 million Americans, suffered from at least one chronic disease, as of  2014 and almost 30 million of US citizens are living with five or more chronic diseases. All chronic diseases require long-term care and have serious impact on patient life quality and can be the cause of premature death. These ailments account for 70 percent of all deaths in America, killing more than 1.7 million people each year. Already highly prevalent, the situation is expected to worsen over the next decades.  The pandemic only made the situation more serious: access to healthcare was harder and costs were up thus limiting a lot of people to get the care they need. Additionally, COVID-19 accelerated the caregiving crisis by thrusting more people into caregiving roles. More than half of employees who say they are now caregivers didn't identify themselves as ones before pandemic.

These reasons coupled with the fact that many families are scattered throughout different cities, countries and even continents makes the need for healthcare workers greater every year. Types of employees needed to care for people in need will differ by country, state and even town, but one thing is for sure, pretty much everyone will need access to a different type of workforce than is available today.

Leading the list of health related jobs, nurse practitioners are in the first place with 52,2% employment change thus creating 115.000 jobs in next period. Home health and personal care aides, who assist with routine healthcare tasks such as bathing and feeding, will account for over one million new jobs in the next decade. This will account for almost 10% of all newly created jobs between 2020 and 2030. Unfortunately, these workers are the lowest paid on the list of the fastest growing jobs. Their median annual salary will stay at $25,000 which means that nearly a quarter of the workforce lives below the federal poverty line.

For quite some time, there is a shortage of healthcare workers on global level. Historically, US has underinvested in core infrastructure relying heavily on informal family support and an industry sustained by poorly paid workers. However, these jobs are not easy to fill because it takes education, experience and time to fully train a healthcare worker. This means that the shortages of health care professions are expected to continue.

We are expecting a sharp increase in demand of healthcare and caretaking jobs, but we are yet to see increases in salaries and work conditions for these workers who are greatly needed.

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