The outlook for Atlanta healthcare jobs looks bright.
According to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta area’s healthcare and education industries employed 258,600 people in June 2008, an increase of 3.7 percent from last year.
An article by the Georgia LaborMarket Explorer notes ambulatory healthcare services is projected to add 13,930 jobs by 2014, while nursing and residential care facilities are expected to grow by 7.7 percent and ambulatory healthcare services by 6 percent.
The GLME states many healthcare occupations are among the fastest-growing jobs in Atlanta, including home health aides at 8.3 percent, physical therapist assistants at 7.2 percent, physician assistants at 7.1 percent, medical assistants at 7.1 percent, mental health and substance abuse social workers at 6.7 percent and physical therapist aides at 6.4 percent. Registered nurses are expected to have 540 annual openings.
Four of the five fastest-growing occupations are found in the healthcare industry. These occupations will have better employment prospects than industries with slow or declining employment, and conditions will be more favorable for job mobility and advancement. Many job openings will result from a need to replace workers who change jobs rather than job creation.
According to Education Portal, some of the most rapidly-expanding Atlanta-area career fields include: medical assistant, dental hygienist, dental assistant, medical records and health information technician, physician assistant, radiation therapist, home health aide, respiratory therapist, cardiovascular technologist, physicial therapist, epidemiologist and surgical technologist.
In 1998, according to City-Data, there were 147 community hospitals in Georgia with a total of 903,663 admissions, 24,113 beds, 28,326 full-time registered nurses, 4,502 full-time practical nurses and 225 physicians per 100,000 people.
In 2001, federal government grants to cover Medicare and Medicaid totaled $3.2 billion, and 932,965 people received Medicare benefits that year.
Overall employment in Atlanta is expected to increase to more than 955,000 jobs by 2014, about 30,100 more than the 654,000 jobs the city had in 2004.
“This area is home to the world’s busiest airport, the headquarters for a major airline, a major retail distribution center, several regional medical centers, and a state university,” the GLME notes. “Key industries are air transportation, health services, education services, insurance services, truck transportation, computer and electronic product manufacturing, and telecommunications.”
