Joblift compares nursing and med tech job postings in U.S.
San Diego, California. July 5th, 2018 — The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that employment in all healthcare sectors is projected to grow 18% from 2016 to 2026. This unparalleled growth in the healthcare sector has attracted droves of job seekers. Nursing has become one of the most popular career choices due to a shortage of registered nurses (RN’s) and attractive wages. Job platform Joblift analyzed all 2,175,491 online postings for RN’s in the U.S. over the last 12 months and found that, surprisingly, postings for RN’s have decreased on average by 1% each month. Joblift also analyzed postings from the last year for seven med tech healthcare professions that only require an associate’s degree, and found that not only are postings for said positions growing at a faster rate than those for nursing — some of them even pay better.
Monthly Growth of Med Tech Jobs Beats Nursing by an Average of 6 Percentage Points
There were 2,176,415 total job postings for RN’s in the U.S. over the period of the last year. That is 5% of all 48,333,087 jobs posted. The combined total of job postings for med tech jobs analyzed by Joblift — dental hygienist, diagnostic imaging worker, nuclear medicine technologist, MRI technologist, respiratory therapist, veterinary technologist and radiation therapist — is 90,681. However, Joblift has determined that postings for RN’s across the U.S. are decreasing at an average monthly rate of 1%. The following five med tech professions are exhibiting the greatest average monthly growth: MRI technologist (+9%), veterinary technologist (+5%), diagnostic imaging worker (+5%), dental hygienist (+4%) and respiratory therapist (+4%).
Radiation Therapists Can Expect to Earn 15% More per Year Than RN's
According to the Bureau for Labor Statistics, the median salary for RN’s from 2017 was $70,000. How good of a return this salary is on the investment of one’s education, depends on whether one chooses to become a RN by pursuing an associate’s or bachelor’s degree. However, the following five med tech professions only require an associate’s and offer comparable, if not better, median salaries: radiation therapist ($80,570), nuclear medicine technologist ($75,660), dental hygienist ($74,070), diagnostic imaging worker ($65,620) and MRI technologist ($60,070). For perspective, the median income for radiation therapists is higher than the median income in Maryland ($75,847), the state with the highest median income in the United States.
Med Tech Postings in Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota Grow by Around 30%
The following five states accounted for the most RN postings per capita (per 100,000 residents): Hawaii (2,648), West Virginia (2,460), North Dakota (2,445), South Dakota (2,335) and Maine (2,068). Displaying the greatest average monthly growth in postings were: Vermont (+21%), New Mexico (+12%), North Dakota (+11%), South Dakota (+11%), and Michigan (+10%). For med tech jobs, Georgia (72), Wyoming (67), North Dakota (63), District of Columbia (60) and Alaska (60) accounted for the most job postings per capita (per 100,000 residents). Displaying the greatest average monthly growth in postings were: Wyoming (+33%), Montana (+31%), North Dakota (+30%), Idaho (+29%) and Maine (+25%).
It remains to be seen if postings for RN’s will continue to decline over time. However, the steady growth of postings for the aforementioned med tech professions, coupled with the fact that many of them only require an associate’s degree and pay equally as well as nursing, makes them a promising choice for those considering a future career or a career change.
About Joblift
Joblift is a job platform that makes the hiring process intuitive and frictionless for both job seekers and employers. By using the latest machine learning techniques and big data-based algorithms, Joblift provides an optimal match between applicant and organization. Currently active in the US, the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands, Joblift cooperates with over 4,000 partners to combine over 10 million job postings on our platform. Our highly energetic and entrepreneurial team is led by experienced founders Lukas Erlebach (CEO) and Alexander Rausch (COO), who most recently held C-Level positions at Zalando and Amorelie.