United States of Health Care

Job growth in the health care industry has been going gangbusters during the recession and its aftermath, and the gains are likely to keep coming.

That’s according to new employment projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The bureau estimates that the country will add 5.6 million health care and social assistance jobs in the current decade, an increase of about 34 percent. Here’s a breakdown of estimated job changes from 2010 to 2020:

DESCRIPTIONSource: Bureau of Labor Statistics

The industry with the biggest projected job losses between 2010 and 2020 is the federal government, which is expected to eliminate a net 372,000 jobs.

At the occupational level, the positions with the fastest projected growth are registered nurses (expected to add 712,000 jobs), retail sales workers (707,000), home health aides (706,000) and personal care aides
(607,000).

Most of the occupations with the highest growth, like these, are service jobs — and service jobs that need to be performed in person, as opposed to over the phone or Internet. Think of dental hygienists, veterinary technicians and family therapists.

After all, jobs that can be automated (for example, file clerks) or relocated somewhere cheaper (for instance, sewing machine operators) probably will be.

Another interesting section of the report looks at the skill sets that will be in the  highest demand in 2020. In raw numbers, workers with no education beyond a high school diploma will have the highest job growth.

DESCRIPTIONSource: Bureau of Labor Statistics

But in percentage terms, the fastest employment gains will be for workers with master’s degrees, a group that starts from a much smaller base.

DESCRIPTIONSource: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Note, of course, that job growth does not necessarily refer to jobs that pay well.