The healthcare industry is continuing to add jobs to the recovering U.S. economy, aided by the baby boomer generation reaching retirement age and leaving jobs to fill, according to Bloomberg.
By 2020, the healthcare sector is projected to add at least 5.6 million employees while also serving as the largest job gainer, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. By 2050, 25 percent of Americans will be 65 years of age or older, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
"The first baby boomer just turned 65 last year, so when it comes to health-care jobs, we haven't seen nothing yet," chief financial economist Chris Rupkey with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ in New York told Bloomberg. "We can't imagine a time when we'll be able to outsource the job of a home health aide giving a senior a bath or helping with physical therapy."
Healthcare jobs also will be protected against the impact of globalization since they typically require patients and caregivers see one-another vis-à-vis, Rupkey said.
The dispersal of healthcare jobs also reaches into small towns and regions that are economically distressed areas, according to the Labor Studies Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research.