Health care leads list for projected job growth in Lane County

SPRINGFIELD, Ore. -- Bonnie Root is passionate about her job as a nurse at PeaceHealth's RiverBend hospital.

"I love teaching first-time parents how to change a diaper, how to breast feed, how to care for a newborn," she said.

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And Root's job is secure: Health care is one of the only industries in Lane County industries that didn't lose jobs in 2009. The others are education and government.

But in this new economy, even nursing is much more competitive.

"Turnover is probably at an all time low," said Kitty Schiffer, vice president for pateint car at PeaceHealth. Right now, nurses are clinging to their good-paying jobs with benefits, Schiffer said, so hospitals are not hiring as many nurses.

This lull is temporary.

"It's going to go up and stay up," Schiffer said of demand for health care workers. "That really is a function of our demographic changes: many many more elders are going to be need of acute health care and chronic health care to meet their needs."

The employment department just compiled its job projections through 2018. Health care tops this list.

"Anything associated with health care, including dentists, including billing, nurses, doctors -- that's expected to grow fairly rapidly, around 20 percent, in the next ten years," said Brian Rooney, the regional economist.

In Lane County, nurses and home health aids are expected to add the most jobs, followed by customer service, retail, food workers, office clerks and accountants.

Some high-growth jobs locally include psychiatric aides, corrections officers and preschool teachers. The regional economist also expects blue collar jobs like construction and truck driving to grow.

"We're expecting the Baby Boom generation is going to be approaching retirement age," Rooney said. "As they come out its going to create opportunity in just about any industry."

The U.S. Department of Labor shows some of the fastest growing jobs are:

• Biomedical engineers
• Data communications analysts
• Financial examiners
• Medical scientists
• Skin care specialists
• Athletic trainers

The sectors with the largest projected growth in jobs are:

• Registered nurses
• Home health aides
• Customer service representatives
• Food service
• Personal and home care aides
• Retail sales
• Office clerks
• Accountants and auditors
• Nursing aides
• Postsecondary teachers
• Construction laborers

But career councilors warn a job is only hot if it's something you want to do.

Nurse Root feels like she's hit the job jackpot.

"It's a great career," she said, "so it's a good opportunity all around."