Dallas-Fort Worth healthcare and education jobs grew at more than twice the U.S. annual rate ending January, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Healthcare and education jobs grew 4.8 percent, compared with the U.S. rate of 2 percent. In raw numbers, that growth represented 17,800 jobs. Because education employment has stagnated due to tight state funding, most of the job growth likely was in healthcare.
DFW annual job growth was 3.7 percent during the 12-month period, the second-highest rate among the 12 largest metropolitan areas. Only Houston’s 4.5 percent growth was larger. The U.S. annual job growth rate was 1.5 percent.
Total nonfarm DFW employment was slightly more than 3 million jobs, up more than 109,000 compared with the previous year. The DFW Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) consists of two metropolitan divisions (MD)—Dallas-Plano-Irving and Fort Worth-Arlington. The Dallas MD, which accounts for 70 percent of DFW’s labor force, added nearly 75,000 jobs during the year. The Fort Worth MD, which accounts for the remaining 30 percent, added nearly 35,000 jobs.
The Texas healthcare workforce will grow by more than a third this decade, according to a 2012 report by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and Workforce.
The 37 percent healthcare job growth rate outpaces the projected 26 percent growth rate for all other jobs in the Lone Star State. In raw numbers, the growth equates to 438,710 job openings from 2010 to 2020.
Texas will have the third-fastest growing healthcare workforce, trailing only Utah and Georgia. The U.S. will create 5.6 million new healthcare jobs by 2020, and most will be high-paying and require post-secondary education.
Steve Jacob is editor of D Healthcare Daily and author of the new book Health Care in 2020: Where Uncertain Reform, Bad Habits, Too Few Doctors and Skyrocketing Costs Are Taking Us. He can be reached at [email protected].
