Health-Care Jobs Remedy for Economy

Quad - State Business Journal, Apr 2008 by Heerwagen, Peter

While the region's economic growth may have stalled during the current national recession, one sector that continues to grow is health care. Estimates put health-care spending at one-seventh of the nation's gross national product.

Based on a compilation of data from ES-202 job and wage reports from state employment commissions, in the second quarter of 2007, healthcare jobs accounted for one-eighth of all jobs in the region, and almost oneseventh of all wages.

In every county in the Quadstate region, except Washington,. Jefferson and Morgan counties, healthcare jobs increased as a percentage of total jobs during the 2001 to 2007 period. And with the exception of Morgan County, which experienced an actual drop in the number of healthcare jobs, the percentage drops in the other two counties were minor.

As might be expected, in 2007 Winchester-Frederick County and Washington County, each with large hospital and health-care organizations, had the highest percentage of healthcare jobs of all jobs, 13.9% and 13.3%, respectively.

During the 2001 to 2007 period, total wages in the health-care job category, which are some of the highest, increased as a percent of all wages in every jurisdiction except Jefferson and Morgan counties.

In the Winchester-Frederick County area, health-care wages accounted for 17.8% of total wages of all jobs, whereas in Clarke County, the only jurisdiction without a hospital, health-care wages were the lowest, at 4.2% of total wages.