Those looking for a job in Portland should know healthcare jobs in the city are growing.
Through 2016, Oregon‘s educational and health services industry is expected to grow by 28 percent, reaching 262,700 positions, an increase of 57,500 from the 2006 employment of 205,200 workers.
As of July 2008, the Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton area’s education and health services industry employed 127,300 workers, an increase of 3.4 percent from last year. According to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, this is slightly lower than June’s employment of 128,900.
Employment in the education and health services industry increased from last year during every month this year, by 2.7 percent in February, by 2.8 percent in March, by 3.1 percent in April, by 3 percent in May, by 3.1 percent in June and by 3.4 percent in July.
During July, Portland‘s unemployment rate was at 5.6 percent, only slightly higher than June’s unemployment rate of 5.3 percent and lower than the national unemployment rate of 5.7 percent. The area’s total non-farm employment was at 1,036,200, an increase of .3 percent from last year.
In 2006, healthcare was the largest industry in the country, creating 14 million jobs, 13.6 million jobs for wage and salary workers and 438,000 self-employed positions. Of the 20 fastest growing occupations, seven are in the healthcare industry.
The healthcare industry is expected to create 3 million new wage and salary jobs through 2016, more than any other industry.
About 580,000 establishments make up the healthcare industry, including hospitals, nursing and residential care facilities, offices of physicians, offices of dentists, home healthcare services, offices of other health practitioners, outpatient care centers, other ambulatory healthcare services and medical and diagnostic laboratories.
Almost 77 percent of healthcare establishments are offices of physicians, dentists or other health practitioners, and although hospitals make up 1 percent of all healthcare establishments, they employ 35 percent of workers in the industry.