Magic Pot of Jobs

While many industries are trimming jobs in preparation for an economic slowdown or possible recession, there are several Nevada healthcare jobs that need to be filled.

Nevada’s economy overall is losing jobs. The state had a total non-farm employment of 1,280,200 during September 2008, down from 1,284,400 during August and a decrease of .5 percent from last year. However, Nevada’s education and health services industry employed 96,200 workers during September, up from 95,700 during August. This is an increase of 3.6 percent from last year, according to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics.

While healthcare jobs in the country have increased, the availability of medical professionals has not been able to keep up with Nevada’s growth, according to an article by the Nevada Business Journal. Currently, the state faces shortages of primary care physicians, specialty physicians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, respiratory therapists, psychologists, technicians and other healthcare workers.

Nevada had 230 physicians per 100,000 people in 2006, compared to the national average of 321 physicians per 100,000 people, according to Nevada’s Health Access Profile compiled by the State Health Access Data Assistance Center.

The state is not producing enough doctors at its medical schools because the federal government has capped the number of residents allowed to receive Medicare funded care in Nevada. The caps, set about 20 years ago, are disproportionate with Nevada’s current population and substantially damage the growth of the state’s residency programs.

Lately, it seems new physicians would rather be employed than start their own businesses. At the same time, hospitals are incurring added costs in the form of higher salaries and financial incentives paid to medical personnel for recruitment and retention.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 11:37 am and is filed under Job Search. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.