The healthcare sector is emerging as a lifeline for struggling job seekers, with many industries helping drive US job growth. After six years as a stay-at-home mother, Cynthia Webster, 50, planned to reenter the workforce and found a job as a certified nursing assistant through a six-week training course at her local hospital in Palm Bay, Florida.
Job Opportunities in Healthcare
A handful of industries, like healthcare, have helped drive the pickup in US job growth in recent months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. America’s aging population and the necessity of healthcare have propelled the industry’s ongoing hiring spree. Healthcare recruiters have noticed an uptick in people pivoting into the industry to take jobs with a lower barrier to entry, such as nursing assistants and home health aides.
Non-healthcare jobs in the industry, such as IT technicians and marketing specialists, are also growing steadily. The Place for Children with Autism, an autism therapy center in the Chicago metropolitan area, began offering a revamped training program this year for registered behavior technicians to address persistent vacancies. The program, which doesn’t require prior healthcare experience, has received more than 10,000 applications so far, with 95% of applicants outside the industry.
Training and Career Advancement
UCHealth, a health system based in Colorado, currently has dozens of job openings that have nothing to do with healthcare, ranging from accounts payable analyst to HVAC mechanic. The system also offers training for employees who want to move up or even pivot into patient-facing healthcare jobs, such as nursing. UCHealth has eliminated high school and GED requirements for many entry-level roles in order to “get more people in the door.”
Cynthia Webster, the newly minted CNA, told CNN, “I really never thought I would be in the medical field in all my life, but here I am doing it, and actually, I love it.” Webster’s experience contrasts sharply with the millions of Americans in other industries who have struggled to find a job over the past year.
Original reporting: KEYT (Ventura/Santa Barbara) — read the source article.
