Health Sector is Imperative to NYC’s Strong Economy
The largest growth in the near future is expected in middle-skilled workers for healthcare professionals in the tri-state (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut) region.
Published January 1, 2000
By Frank B. Hicks, Ph.D. and Susan U. Raymond, Ph.D.
Academy Contributors
In the Tri-State region, the health services sector provides over 1.25 million jobs, or more than 9% of the workforce. About 40% of those jobs are in offices and clinics, another 40% in hospitals, and the remaining 20% in labs, outpatient facilities, and home health. While smaller than the retail trade and manufacturing sectors, health services weighs in larger than the finance, insurance, and real estate (F.I.R.E) sector.
Growth in health services employment boomed in the eighties and early nineties, mostly due to growth in home care, but has cooled since then. Wage growth has also cooled since the early nineties, but the average health service wage is still about 8% higher than the average wage for the entire service sector.
Growing Middle-Skill Workers
About three-fifths of the Tri-State region’s health services work- force are trained as health practitioners, making health care a key employer of high and mid-skill personnel. Within the care-giving fraction of the workforce, assistants and aides hold the largest share of jobs, at about 38%. Not as mobile as more highly trained workers, these workers, who make up the bulk of health services, will be strongly affected by strains on the region’s health institutions.
Projected growth will only tend to reinforce the present profile. Half of the 1996-2006 job growth in health services is expected to occur in assistants and aides, while physicians and dentists are expected to contribute to about 6% of the growth.
The health services workforce also represents a comparatively highly-paid sector of the economy. A licensed practical nurse pulls in about $30,000 per year in the region and a nursing aide about $21,000 each year. That compares to an average of $19,000 a year for a retail sales clerk. The region’s middle-skill health workers also typically earn more than their counterparts around the nation. Registered nurses make about 10-15% more and nursing aides as high as 20-40% more than the national average.
Preparing for Future Research
One gauge of the future (and present) state of medical R&D in the region is the number of fellowships the region attracts from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) each year. These grants support many recent graduates and students pursuing scientific degrees in fields related to health care.
While New York, the NIH funding leader in the region, receives more than 10% of the total NIH national funding, it is home to only 7.7% of NIH fellows. Massachusetts, which receives nearly the same NIH funding as New York, has almost twice as many. Connecticut and New Jersey, on the other hand, fare better and attract a slightly greater share of fellows than funding.
These talented fellows contribute to current research and are the grant writers of the future—NIH funding is likely to follow them wherever they go.
Also read: Regardless of Causes, Region’s Hospitals Take a Hit
Source
New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and U.S. Departments of Labor; National Institutes of Health.
