Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Health Industry Gets Larger As Economy Gets Worse

By Ethan Kalvin

The New York Time reports that in November, a shocking 533,000 jobs were lost. That makes the national unemployment rate 6.7 percent. Almost all industries seem to be effected by our weak economy, all but one- the health care industry.

Modern Healthcare reports that 33,800 jobs were added in November. This gave a growth for the month of 0.3 percent. In addition, hospitals and doctor's offices are portraying constant growth in 2008. This year alone has shown a 3.1 percent increase in hospitals and doctor's offices employment.

This does make sense, as their will always be a demand for health care. Even when finances are tight, health always takes a priority over other things. Cost for insurance plans are a completely different topic.

But there are other factors to the growth, as well, pointed out one health care analyst. According to Robert Hawkins, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, the increasing number of Americans with chronic health conditions such as obesity is one of the main factors in health care growth.

Health care professional will be in more demand as the number of chronic illness rises. Hawkins states, "With that volume comes jobs to take care of these folks.

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