Online job ads for healthcare practitioners, technical workers, and support staff fell off sharply in April, but there were still nearly three jobs available for every highly skilled healthcare professional looking for work, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted Online report.
Labor demand for healthcare practitioners and technical occupations fell by 28,600 listings in April to 568,500. Healthcare support positions fell by 11,400 new listings to 129,100 in April, The Conference Board reports.
The board's Help Wanted Online Data Series tracks more than 1,000 online job boards across the United States.
Online job listings in healthcare continue to yo-yo from month to month. In March, healthcare practitioners and technical occupations grew by 3,700, and healthcare support positions posted 4,400 new listings, with the primary demand coming for physical therapist assistants, home health aides, nursing aides, and medical assistants.
In January, The Conference Board reported 78,500 new listings for healthcare practitioners and technicians, and 16,600 new ads for healthcare support jobs, as healthcare jobs led a strong first month of 2011. However, February saw online job ads for practitioners and technical occupations drop by 4,300 owing largely to decreases in advertised vacancies for registered nurses and occupational and physical therapists, while support positions posted a decrease of 4,200.
Even with April's decline in on-line job listings, there were nearly three jobs for every healthcare technician and practitioner job seeker, with the average salary of $33.51 an hour. Conversely, there were 1.7 healthcare support workers for every online job listing, with pay averaging $12.84 an hour, The Conference Board reports.
In the overall economy, online advertised vacancies fell 123,800 to slightly more than 4.3 million. "Labor demand has risen to levels we last saw just before the official start of the recession four years ago," said June Shelp, vice president at The Conference Board, in a media release. "At the same time, the number of unemployed has doubled and now stands at 13.5 million, and some professions have clearly fared better than others in job opportunities. At this stage, there are occupations where the supply/demand rate has fallen significantly and there are two or less unemployed for every advertised vacancy. However, other occupations are still experiencing relatively high supply/demand rates above 4.0, reflecting the fact that there are over four unemployed for every advertised vacancy."
John Commins is a content specialist and online news editor for HealthLeaders, a Simplify Compliance brand.