Posted February 17, 2018 03:01:22The Occupational Medicine profession has had a major boost in its ability to recruit in the last year, according to a report released Wednesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Occupational medicine has been a key recruitment tool in the U., but it’s seen a boost in recent years, as doctors have gained more experience, access to new technologies and the ability to conduct clinical trials.
The industry also has seen an increase in patient demand, especially among younger people, which has resulted in increased hiring, said Sara Osterlund, a health economist at the University of California, San Francisco.
A few industries, such as the manufacturing sector, have seen some job losses in recent months, and there is also some evidence that the medical profession is losing the battle to attract new talent, Osterheimen said.
“There’s a big change going on in the labor market.
You can see that, especially for the specialty areas, especially in the primary care and specialty medicine fields, that are the biggest employers,” she said.
The bureau released data showing that occupational medicine accounted for 11 percent of the workforce, a percentage that’s more than double the 13 percent reported in the previous year.
“The big takeaway from this is the occupational medicine field is growing at a very fast rate, and that’s really good news,” said David Kostovitz, an economist at University of Wisconsin, Madison, who specializes in health economics.
“As more people gain experience and gain experience at different levels, that’s going to allow them to get a leg up on their peers in other occupations, so that’s good news.”
The profession has been growing at about 6.5 percent annually over the past five years, according the bureau.
The numbers are similar to the 3.7 percent increase for occupational medicine between 2008 and 2014.
But the profession is expanding at a much faster rate than other professions.
In the first half of this year, occupational medicine has grown by 6.9 percent compared with the first six months of 2016.
In 2016, the Occupational Therapy and Related Health Services (OTHS) occupation group accounted for a whopping 14.3 percent of all the occupations, followed by Health Care Administration (HC) occupations with 5.7, and then the Health Insurance Industry (HII) group with 2.9.
The number of occupations in the OTHS group is up from just 5 percent in 2015, but the HII group has grown to 6.4 percent.
Osterholmen said that while she was not able to identify which occupations have gained the most, it’s possible that some of the job gains were driven by more highly qualified candidates.
“We’re seeing a lot of candidates with high qualifications and the skillset that they’re looking for,” she told Fortune.
“A lot of the jobs that have been lost have come from people who have moved up in the career ladder.”
Ostersteinen said it’s important to keep in mind that the occupation growth is still at a relatively low level.
It’s hard to tell whether the growth is due to new technology or increased recruitment, she said, but she thinks it’s more likely that the growth reflects increased recruitment.
Occupation groups that are growing fastest include those in the health care and related professions.
Health Care and Related Occupations is up by 12.5 points, and is now up 5.4 percentage points over the first 6 months of 2017.
“I think that’s been the case for the last few years,” Osterkamp said.
In that time, the profession has gained a growing number of highly qualified doctors, and also more people who are able to conduct scientific research.
In contrast, occupational diseases have also seen a rise, and the profession grew by only 2.3 points over those same six months.
“It’s been a little bit more slower than the health profession, but we’re seeing the same trends, which are pretty consistent with what you would expect,” Ostengerten said, adding that occupational disease growth has been “pretty steady” for the past year.
In terms of the health professions, there are still fewer people practicing in the profession than in the past.
The profession accounted for 8.6 percent of U.N. employees in 2017, down from 10.2 percent in 2016.
There are now about 10.5 million U.s. workers employed in the occupational health profession.
Osterslund said the profession should be able to attract more doctors and medical students, but it could take a few more years to gain traction.
The trend is “not great,” she added.
