A recently released report by the Georgetown University claims that, even without the additional jobs created by the Affordable Healthcare Act, the healthcare industry is poised to gain an additional 3 million jobs by the end of the decade. This includes both healthcare and healthcare support jobs, from doctors and surgeons to nurses and medical billing specialists.
Beyond this natural growth, the report also says that organic job turnover such as worker deaths and retirement will add to the healthcare industry growing by nearly 30 percent, up to an estimated 5.6 million workers by the close of the decade. This is good news for potential healthcare personnel, because there is no way to know the future of the Affordable Care Act, but if the results of the report are accurate, then healthcare will be a viable and fertile career field for decades to come.
Some legal changes have already been tacked onto the bill, but these and other changes, experts say, are likely to have a minimal effect on the overall growth of the industry. At the end of the day, researchers say, there will likely be some shifts within the industry, and that the industry will continue to grow if, for no other reason, that it’s already growing very rapidly.
Finally, the report also shows that nurses are becoming increasingly educated and are in more demand than ever before. With these new educated employees hitting the market, it is expected that average wages will exceed $40,000 per year, and in some cases may reach nearly $70,000 a year for highly qualified nurses and in some cities.