Healthcare to add 4M jobs through 2018

The healthcare industry will experience some of the fastest job growth through 2018, with home health aides and personal and home care aides leading the pack at 460,900 new jobs and 375,800 new jobs, respectively. In fact, half of the 20 fastest growing occupations are in healthcare, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data.

The BLS also predicts that roughly 26 percent of all new jobs created in the U.S. economy will be in the healthcare and social assistance industry.

Thanks to an aging population and longer life expectancies, public and private hospitals, nursing and residential care facilities, and individual and family services are expected to grow by a total of 4 million new jobs, notes the BLS.

The industry will also add 44,200 medical scientists, 29,200 physician assistants, and 14,700 new skin care specialists, among others.

Such an increased--and extensive--healthcare workforce could be encouraging news for hospitals as they try to find ways to deliver care amid a looming physician shortage and increased demand under health reform.

For more:
- here's the press release
- check out the BLS data
- read the Foxborough Patch article