Medicine creating more jobs than any other field

Health care positions were a driver behind better-than-expected job statistics for September.

The monthly employment report issued Oct. 7 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 103,000 jobs were added in September. About 85% of the gain came from the return of 45,000 striking Verizon Communications workers and 43,800 jobs created in health care -- more than any other monthly total in 2011. The growth included 12,200 new jobs in physician offices and 13,300 in hospitals.(link).

In 2011, an average of 28,700 jobs have been added per month in health care. Physician offices created an average of 5,900 monthly, and hospitals have grown at a pace of 6,700.

Despite the job growth, the overall unemployment rate remained at 9.1% for the third consecutive month.

Another report tracking online help-wanted ads indicates that health care will continue to hire at a pace greater than other fields -- at least in the immediate future.

The number of ads for any job declined 43,500 to 3,947,100 in September, and there were 10 million more unemployed than advertised vacancies, according to the monthly report released Sept. 28 by the Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine.

The health care practitioner and technician category, which includes physicians, increased. There were many more ads than people trained to fill them.

The number of ads for health care practitioners and technicians grew by 17,900 to 531,600 listings. There were about two ads for each person looking for such a job. This was primarily driven by increased demand for registered nurses.

The number of ads for physicians dipped slightly, although researchers say this had more to do with seasonal variation than a decline in the consistently high demand for doctors. Listings for physician jobs slid from 8,600 in August to 8,100 in September.

"I wouldn't write home about it," said June Shelp, vice president of the Conference Board, an independent business research organization. "This is not a big difference from what we have seen in the past."

The number of listings for health care support personnel held steady, and demand for these jobs was high. There were 116,000 ads in August and 115,800 in September. Unlike clinical jobs, there were more people looking than positions being advertised, at a 2.7-1 ratio.