Is Healthcare Job Security A Reality
The concept of job security is largely gone as contract work and corporations have worked to maximize profits to appease shareholders. But not all is lost. In healthcare, job security is continually strengthening relative to all other fields. In fact, working in the healthcare industry means that your hospital careers or hospital jobs are some of the most secure positions moving forward.
That's because healthcare workers are in high demand, and they do a job that millions of people need every year. It’s one of the age-old adages, people need food and water, and they need to remain healthy. Talk about an indispensable field. Medical jobs have some of the best job outlooks out of any field, with the median job growth being 19% over the next few years. The industry will also add over 2.3 million new jobs, which is more than any other field.
When an industry is continually adding new jobs for the foreseeable future, you never have to worry about cutbacks or sudden terminations because of a slowdown in the industry. If you never have to worry about getting fired or getting laid off because of the direction the industry is heading, then you already have more stability than your peers in the working world. Your peers will constantly be stressing about a business slowdown, industry trends, and employment trends.
Healthcare workers also get paid more on average than workers in any other occupation. On average, healthcare industry workers bring in more than $61,000 a year, while other occupations' workers only bring in an average of $35,540 — healthcare workers bring in just shy of double what everyone else does a year, on average.
Wouldn’t you rather find an occupation or a career where you can earn more on average than your peers? You can do just that working in the healthcare industry. The healthcare industry also provides you with plenty of opportunities to increase your skills, receive advanced training, and then receive additional compensation for that enhanced training as you gain more experience.
In other industries, that isn’t always the case. You might not be compensated for the new skills you’re forced to learn, and you don’t always get the opportunity to rise through the ranks to upper management based on your level of expertise and experience.
Turnover in normal occupations is growing at an increasingly high rate. There is so much turnover in the job market that many people turn to freelance work or they just drive people around for cash. Companies cut thousands of workers on bad months or if they feel like they can get the jobs done cheaper somewhere else.
UpWork published a study detailing the state of the freelance industry and predictions moving forward and the data is astounding.
Some of the things mentioned in the detailed study include highlighted how roughly 57.3 million Americans are currently working as a freelancer, which equates to roughly 36% of the current US workforce. That number is only expected to grow in the foreseeable future as roughly 54% of the workforce stated they are worried about the state of their job over the next two decades. This means that individuals are turning to freelance by choice because they are worried over their own job security, and are attempting to find ways to establish that job security on their own.
In addition, companies are expected to transition some of their workforce to a freelance or contract basis. This means that individuals have to worry about losing their job because their employer is transitioning their role into a freelance per-contract basis. They might still be employed by their previous employer but they will no longer have access to benefits, personal time off, and more.
As technology becomes more prevalent, other careers or jobs will increasingly be phased out with more advanced systems like Artificial Intelligence (AI) or other program/software methods. The healthcare industry doesn’t have to worry about that in the large part.
While the healthcare industry will ultimately experience some change, individuals will still need to be cared for on a human level. You can’t replace the human-interaction part of the healthcare industry with some computer or robot, and that’s another why the healthcare industry provides some of the best job security.
But, the medical industry is solid because it's a field that depends on good people for good work, not just an industry that looks for the cheapest workers, or the largest number of people who will click buttons. If that doesn't make you want to go back to school for a healthcare job, I don't know what will.
Why Job Security Is Important
There are several reasons as to why job security is important when you’re trying to determine whether or not the healthcare industry might be the right industry for you. We will outline why job security is so important and provide a little bit more detail for each one.
1. Career Stability
Throughout the course of your career, you might change your career between eight to twelve times. That number has actually increased recently to roughly ten to fifteen times. Career stability is different than your job stability. Essentially your job is the single job you hold and perform. Whether it’s the specific position or place of employment you might hold.
Your career is how your role transitions over a period of time. A way to make this a little bit easier to understand the difference is to use an example. If you’re a Registered Nurse working in the healthcare industry and you eventually transition your role into working as a Medical Director, your career still revolves around working in the healthcare industry. Now if you were a marketing director, and eventually transitioned into becoming a strategic director in the healthcare industry, there has been a career change. Your role has changed, and the industry you work in has changed as well.
The healthcare industry provides more career stability because there are so many careers and jobs that you can transition to within the healthcare industry. In other industries, you eventually hit a ceiling in terms of career potential or job potential, and you’re forced to look at external sources to find upward mobility in your career.
2. Improved Motivation
Individuals who don’t have to worry about their job security also have increased levels of motivation. They also feel a greater commitment to their employer because they will be with the employer or facility for a longer period of time.
Essentially when you have more job security, you can establish your roots for a longer period of time. When you have deeper roots and a deeper connection to your employer, you want to work harder for them and accomplish more goals.
When you accomplish more goals and work harder, you ultimatelyachieve greater job satisfaction
3. Looks Better On Your Resume
Another benefit of job security is that it ultimately looks better on your resume. When a healthcare recruiter or healthcare employer reviews your resume and notices that you have skipped around from employment to employment, it might draw some concerns. While it might be understandable to have a few short tenures at new positions in a difficult economic time, a recurring pattern can make them question whether or not you would be a good fit for their organization.
When you have consistent job security in your role, then you can indicate that you have a credible and reliable track record as a healthcare professional. When you stick with a position and showcase your loyalty to that employer or facility based on the job security they provided, then you can express that you would be able to provide that loyalty to them when you conduct your interview or seek employment elsewhere.
The ability to display your loyalty from the job security your previous employers provided you with will help you secure future jobs and make you a more attractive hire in the future.
Job Security Is Strong In Medicine
The medical field is arguably one of the best career fields in America. Without a doubt, it is one of the most challenging fields, but also one of the most rewarding and most in-demand. It is also a field where the most in-demand jobs are also the most tangible. They need more nurses, techs, and many positions you can get with an associate degree.
If you aren’t certain that you want to pursue a medical degree or healthcare degree just yet, then you also have plenty of healthcare jobs, hospital jobs, or hospital careers that you can start without a degree. We have compiled a list of the best Entry Level Medical Jobs That Don’t Require A Degree.
In other words, you don’t have to worry about job security throughout your career because the job security isn’t limited to the degree you have, the level of degree you have, the education you obtain, or a host of other factors because you can find job security in every level of the healthcare industry. You can find job security in entry-level positions, mid-level positions, and high-end positions.
The healthcare industry is one of the only industries, if not the only industry to provide that kind of job security for every level. In other industries, you have to worry about whether or not you have enough experience to obtain some form of job security.
For example, if you’re a marketer you will struggle to find job security because there are so many other highly trained and experienced marketers available. In other words, you have a high probability of being replaced. In the healthcare industry, there is a massive talent shortage. This means that there aren’t as many individuals who can replace you as other industries, which makes you extremely valuable.
When you are extremely valuable, you will be a commodity that others need. In the talent shortage of the healthcare industry, then you can rest assured knowing that your skills will allow you to find gainful employment with ease. Not many other industries can say that the employees constantly receive new job offers or interview requests for open positions, but the healthcare industry frequently experiences that phenomenon.
As we’ve mentioned several times, there are a massive number of hospital jobs or hospital careers that continually become available. As hospitals and healthcare facilities constantly struggle to find ways to fill those open positions, one of the things that is gripping the healthcare industry is finding available talent. When the hospitals or healthcare facilities struggle to find available talent, the only other option is to attempt to hire away talent from other hospitals and healthcare facilities.
In other words as a healthcare worker, you might have multiple job offers while you’re still gainfully employed. In other industries, you might get laid off and have to wait for months before you can find another opportunity. Not only do you have to wait a considerable amount of time to find another employment opportunity, but there is also a high likelihood that you will have to settle because you have been on the unemployed market for so long.
That problem doesn’t exist in the healthcare industry. In fact, it’s quite the opposite in the healthcare industry. As the competing hospitals or healthcare facilities look to source you away from your existing job, you will often receive more competitive offers or more competitive benefits to entice you to consider their proposal.
Not only will you be able to hold the position that you currently have when you work in the healthcare industry, but you will also be able to find a new opportunity with ease. No other industry can honestly say that. While others certainly come close, the healthcare industry stands alone when it comes to the ability to find, secure, and then find a new opportunity.
Now that we've gone over a brief overview, we are going to talk about what specifically makes the medical field strong. Over the past few years, some important factors made it possible for the healthcare industry to have some of the most stable, highest paying, sought-after jobs in America. These important factors helped make the healthcare industry such an attractive marketplace for the average job seeker and make it one of the most reliable and secure jobs for healthcare professionals who are currently employed.
1. The Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act created a ton of jobs in the healthcare sector — or it created the need for a ton of jobs, anyway. The Affordable Care Act gave a huge amount of people access to healthcare and in-turn increased demand on our healthcare workers in the field and created the need for more.
As more individuals could receive insurance through government mandates, more people have greater access to receive care for things that they would previously postpone or disregard because they didn’t have the insurance to be able to pay for the expensive doctor visit or extensive care.
It basically opened the floodgates in the medical community and there weren't enough doctors and nurses to see everybody. When there aren’t enough qualified professionals to see everybody, a massive number of qualified professionals were needed to counter the increase in patients that was unexpected. Hospitals and healthcare facilities couldn’t prepare for the increase n patients that seemed to double nearly overnight.
Jobs like nursing, advanced practice nursing, and physician's assistants became highly sought after and they began filling gaps that our doctors couldn't. They are also more cost-efficient.
Advanced practice nurses, physician assistants, and nurses help perform a larger number of functions in hospitals and healthcare facilities, so they can be tasked with more responsibilities. There is a massive demand for individuals who can fulfill those roles in the new modern era with the Affordable Care Act.
For instance, in 2017 CNBC reported that roughly 500,000 jobs were added to the healthcare industry because of some of the mandates set forth in the Affordable Care Act.
Since there is more affordable healthcare now, it means there need to be more affordable workers in healthcare. That has also increased the need for nurse practitioners and physician's assistants who can do many of the tasks doctors can, but for cheaper.
Job security in the healthcare industry largely has to do with the number of individuals who are receiving care. Because the Affordable Care Act made it easier for millions of Americans to get insured, that means that there is an increased demand in healthcare professionals. Even though we’ve stated that several times, you still might be asking yourself about the numbers behind the Affordable Care Act. In terms of numbers of patient increase, roughly 48 million Americans were uninsured. After the Affordable Care Act passed, that number was reported as low as 28.6 million Americans in 2016.
In other words, roughly 20 million Americans were able to receive healthcare coverage when they couldn’t afford it or have access to it before. Those 20 million Americans need medical care, and that influx of new patients or healthcare clientele is why the healthcare industry has continued to see new growth each year.
The fascinating thing is that the growth doesn’t seem to be slowing down with the new administration. The adoption of the Affordable Care Act will continue to grow as the law is refined and made more clear each year.
As the healthcare industry continually sees new laws passed to aid Americans in getting affordable healthcare, qualified candidates and qualified professionals working in the healthcare industry should have no trouble getting the job that they desire and feel secure knowing that they can hold onto the position for the foreseeable future.
2. Retiring Baby Boomers
Baby boomers accounted for the highest number of births our country ever saw. Now, those same individuals have lived and worked a long career and are retiring. This means a huge number of people are leaving the workforce. It also means a huge number of people will need medical attention because with age comes the need for healthcare — they alone buy 77% of all prescription drugs.
By 2029, there will be upwards of 71 million people in retirement. This will hugely impact our system as a whole, especially the medical community because of overwhelming use of the system. This is going to create a massive demand for intervention.
The 71 million individuals who will be entering retirement will be the largest percentage of the US workforce that we’ve ever seen phase-out of the working world and begin needing care. In other words, we as a society have never had to tackle care numbers at those levels before, and the healthcare industry needs qualified professionals to fill those hospital jobs or hospital careers as they become available at an alarming rate.
By 2020, over 25% of employees will be 55 or over, meaning that they will soon be going into retirement and there will be a huge gap open up in the job market.
There will be a gigantic gap in the care marketplace that needs to be filled quickly. There will also be a gap in medical jobs too. Many healthcare workers, like in other occupations, hope to retire over the next couple of years. This opens up spots for younger professionals to move in and secure their spot over the years to come. Also, this huge increase in our elderly population means we will need people more than ever to step in and take care of the growing amount of patients we will no-doubt see.
The good news for those looking for some form of job security in the healthcare industry is that the baby boomers won’t just need care in hospitals. They will also need care in healthcare facilities, healthcare clinics, physical therapy clinics, out-patient clinics, and much more. The good news means that the job security that will be created because of the baby boomers entering the healthcare industry won’t be confined to one sector of the healthcare industry like hospitals. On the contrary, the job security will be available in every healthcare sector within the healthcare industry.
This means that you won’t be confined to exclusively choosing between a few hospital careers or a few hospital jobs until you can find some stability in your healthcare career. Relatively every single healthcare career will be able to provide the best job stability in the foreseeable future.
3. It Makes a Ton of Money
The healthcare industry brings in 1.668 Trillion dollars in revenue every year. The fascinating thing is that the healthcare industry is also the industry that has the most revenue. There are over 784,000 healthcare companies in America and those companies employ hundreds of thousands of people. The industry is so large it is no wonder why there is strong job security in the field. It brings in so much money that it can afford to keep its workers and hire more. The industry can afford to bring in new qualified talent as the industry continues to grow and tackle the ever-growing number of patients that need care.
In America, if you make a company money, you will in turn make money. So the medical industry needs more and more skilled workers to keeps its money rolling in. They keep their workers because it takes specialized training and time to do well in the industry and to attract patients to use their services.
Because it is such a money-maker, it will always have more positions that need to be filled, and there will always be a need for its workers to stay, so they can meet the overwhelming demand they face in the coming years. Baby boomers will generate a ton of income for hospitals and healthcare companies, so they need their workforce to stay strong and in place.
This need for the workforce to remain strong and consistently contribute by providing value to the healthcare facility, hospital, and healthcare organization is one of the key reasons that working in the healthcare industry provides so much job stability.
4. It's Skill Oriented, Not Numbers Driven
The healthcare industry is different compared to other industries. They can't just pull any Joe Schmo off of the street and make them your nurse. That's why there is such strong job security in the medical field. It is a market-driven job, where schooling and skill determine your job placement — and the market always demands medical workers. It is one of the few jobs out there today that requires specific degrees and credentials but also allows you to get jobs straight out of school with as little as an associate degree or an entry level position with no degree.
Many entry-level jobs today just require an un-specific college degree or just need people acting as cogs in their corporate machine, but healthcare needs real, skilled workers who are specifically trained in an area of medicine. There are also a ton of graduating students with non-specific degrees who are all competing for the same jobs and they don't have any real skills to set them apart.
Healthcare is different. There is a clear path, with certain qualifications you must meet in order to advance or even get a job. There aren't people in healthcare competing for the same job having only humanities and marketing degrees; they have specific credentials which keep them clearly focused and allow them to become valuable to a specific job. That’s not to say that there aren’t any hospital jobs or hospital careers that you can obtain if you have an unrelated degree that isn’t focused in the healthcare industry, because there are plenty of jobs or roles that you can hold.
The path to the healthcare industry will just be different for those individuals, and if they want to pursue a healthcare career or healthcare job that focuses on providing care to patients, they will have to obtain additional certifications, training, and licensure.
The beauty of the healthcare industry is that because the industry is skill-oriented, you will always be a valuable asset that organizations and hospitals are looking to secure. As we mentioned earlier, the healthcare industry is constantly trying to find individuals that can provide value. The more training and skills you have under your tool belt, the more valuable you are because you can provide more value.
This means that the more skills you have, the more training you receive, the more certifications and licenses you possess, the more secure your job will be. As we mentioned earlier, this isn’t necessarily true compared to other industries. Other industries will be grateful that you have those certifications and training, but they won’t necessarily compensate you more for having them because they can find someone else off the street who has similar credentials. It is much harder to receive those additional certifications or training in the healthcare industry, so they are much more valuable. The more value you have, the more job security you have.
5. No Longer Have To Worry About Things You Can’t Control
One thing that could potentially worry you with any job is the ability to deal with the things you can’t control. Working in the healthcare industry means that you don’t have to worry as much about some of the things that you can’t control. For instance, you no longer have to worry about some of the stress related to losing your job because it isn’t very secure.
When you don’t have to worry about losing your job each day, then you can focus on the things that really matter — like doing your job well. Job performance is heavily affected when you are constantly worrying about whether or not you’re going to have a job next month, next week, or even tomorrow.
Working in the healthcare industry means that you don’t have to stress about the things that you can’t control and can instead focus on the things that are important like providing the best care you can to the patients that are under your supervision.
Another thing that you no longer have to worry about is job satisfaction. Your job satisfaction will ultimately improve over time because you can enjoy the little details each day. When employees are constantly worried about whether or they have a job in the future, their job satisfaction levels decrease at an alarming rate. Workers and employees are constantly filled with this feeling that they no longer know if they will have a position in the future until the point that it eventually boils up and festers over.
When someone is worried about their job satisfaction and job security, their performance levels suffer drastically because they no longer put their effort into their work like they once did. A thought creeps in and takes hold, and sounds similar to, “What’s the point of working here if I’m not going to be here next month?”
Working in the healthcare industry means that you don’t have to worry about common problems like that. Instead, you can rest assured knowing that you will have job security moving forward, and that you can focus on the things that truly matter in your daily routine.
6. Lower Turnover Rates
As we mentioned above, because the healthcare industry is constantly finding ways to attract and retain new employees, the turnover rates are much lower than other industries. Working in the healthcare industry means that you have an opportunity to impact others in ways that you wouldn’t be able to in other industries.
How many other industries can you say that you had an opportunity to truly turn around the life of someone you could help? In the healthcare industry, you get an opportunity to say that every day. That satisfaction associated with that job level is something that you cannot obtain in other positions or other careers. In the healthcare industry, the turnover rates are especially low because of the ability to have an impact on others like that.
Not to mention when the industry is growing and as consistent as the healthcare industry, you don’t have to worry about looking for work elsewhere because the benefits are so competitive compared to other industries. Voluntary turnover is extremely rare within the healthcare industry, which is an indication of how satisfied people are with their choice of career.
Hospital Jobs With The Most Stable Job Security
While the healthcare industry has some of the most reliable and security jobs, there are several that are top performers amongst the group. We have outlined the top hospital jobs with the most stable job security for you to review.
• 1. Database Administrator — Database Administrators are healthcare IT professionals that help improve the level of care within a facility as hospitals and healthcare facilities increasingly look for ways to improve patient outcomes through the use of technology.
• 2. Chiropractor — Chiropractors focus on treating patients with various problems that relate to their skeletel and muscular systems.
• 3. Physician Assistant — PAs help provide some of the advanced care while coordinating with the Physician who is responsible for the care of each patient.
• 4. Occupational Therapy Assistants — Occupational Therapy Assistants help provide critical occupational therapy to patients who are struggling to complete some of the challenging tasks that are in our daily routine.
• 5. Statistician — Statisticians play an important role in using big data to influence decisions moving forward. The healthcare industry is packed with large data trends that need to be analyzed and used to improve patient outcomes to provide more effective and efficient care.
• 6. Nurse Midwife — Nurse Midwives are responsible for helping treat and care for patients about to undergo the birthing process.
• 7. Nurse Anesthetist — These RNs help specialize in administering anesthetic drugs that are using during painful surgeries or procedures.
• 8. Nurse Practitioner — NPs help provide care and treat patients for a variety of issues and healthcare concerns.
• 9. Respiratory Therapist — These healthcare professionals focus on treating and providing care to those patients who are suffering from heart and lung ailments.
• 10. Surgeon — Surgeons have some of the best job security in the entire healthcare industry, as their skills are sought after in every location. They also have some of the lowest unemployment rates in the industry.
• 11. Occupational Therapy Aides — Occupational Therapy Aides help assist OTs by completing any administrative tasks they might have, cleaning, and other related activities to make sure OTs can interact with their patients efficiently.
• 12. Sonographer — Sonographers use medical equipment to capture various images that are used to more accurately diagnose and treat patients from some of the things that are ailing them.
Summary
With an overwhelmingly stunning number of bad jobs in America, there is no wonder why many people turn to healthcare for job security and fulfillment. The situation in America will continue to make medical jobs some of the most in-demand jobs over the next decade. With a huge influx of patients, an entire generation going into retirement, and many jobs turning their business practice into an unskilled numbers game, the health industry is set to provide more and more jobs to qualified candidates and create more jobs than any other industry.
The field makes so much money it's absurd. Only time will tell how our healthcare system changes over the next few years with a new presidential administration and when we see how the baby boomers impact our system, but one thing is for sure: medical jobs are here to stay and the industry provides the most stable jobs on the market today.
