Health care added 36,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate dropped by about half a percent. But huge cuts and service denials in Great Britain could affect future jobs in the U.S., especially as we move closer to a nationalized health care system. 

Health care employment got a running start on its way out of a rough 2010, with 36,000 jobs added in December, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Additionally, outplacement research firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported a drop in planned layoffs in December, with 16,000 fewer jobs scheduled to be cut that month. Of the 32,000 planned cuts, only 3,500 were in pharmaceuticals and 1,450 in health care. However, troubling news from Great Britain could affect the health care job market in the U.S., especially if it becomes more widely-reported.

As noted by MedZilla.com's Employment Reports over the past few months, a large layoff in the NHS -- Great Britain's nationalized health care system -- has led to strikes, job woes, and now patients are actually being denied care. The denials are primarily in voluntary procedures, or targeted toward smokers and the obese, although some locations have been forced to cut what are termed "lower-priority treatments". In Warwickshire, about 20 miles southeast of Birmingham, these treatments include orthopedic surgery and injections for back pain; in Greater Manchester and Oldham, even tonsillectomies are being affected (telegraph.co.uk, 12/17/10). "As the U.S. moves closer to a nationalized health care system similar to the one used in the U.K., we fear that similar problems could occur here are likely to affect the job market," said Del Johnston, Manager of Client Relations for MedZilla, the internet's most established source for health care, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology job postings. Johnston also cited a report from the NHS union which claims as many as 27,000 people could be affected by the upcoming cuts (topnews.us, 12/27/10), and in Ireland, 4,000 jobs are at risk if a new budget is passed that, in the eyes of one minister, is "several million pounds short" (bbc.co.uk, 12/16/10). "We've seen patient care cuts in small numbers here in the U.S., but even the possibility of a cut this sweeping can have wide-ranging effects on the health care job market," said Johnston.

In the U.S., meanwhile, only a few major layoffs were announced in December. One of them was the result of a new contract between Express Scripts and union employees in Pennsylvania which will lead to at least 500 job losses in that state (philly.com, 12/11/10). Also, home health care workers in Cincinnati could be at risk of cutbacks due to a 25 percent budget cut (fox19.com, 12/30/10). However, there was also positive news in Ohio -- a new $465 million "medical mart" being built in Cleveland hopes to create jobs (businessweek.com, 12/29/10), and the state has also received a $12.4 million federal bonus for its work in insuring poor children (bloomberg.com, 12/27/10).

Ohio, like most other states, has also seen almost no change in new job postings and searches by job-seekers. In fact, only two states had significant shifts in the number of posted jobs -- Massachusetts rose by 1.3 percent, and New York fell by 1.2. Job seeker numbers, however, remained flat across the board. The real change was in candidate searches by companies. "We weren't surprised to see such broad jumps," said John Burkhardt, MedZilla's Director of Operations. "Last December, we saw the same type of activity, and once again it was New Jersey in the lead with an increase of more than 11 percent." Other states with increases included Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, and North Carolina, with only California showing a significant drop -- almost six percent. "Candidate searches increased mostly in diabetic specialties and sales -- eight percent each," Burkhardt said.

"As we head into 2011, we expect to see more technology being used in health care and pharmaceuticals," Johnston said. "Companies and government agencies are going to have to get their acts together on electronic health records, and as technology itself becomes more prominent in hospitals and doctor's offices, people are going to be hired to run it and service it." To that end, Dell has acquired a company specializing in cloud computing, which they hope will help physicians share images such as x-rays without requiring a specific vendor's output device (seekingalpha.com, 12/22/10). Also, more and more iPads are being used by doctors and in hospitals, although concerns over security and the walled-garden of apps in the App Store remain forefront (informationweek.com, 12/20/10). "Medicine has always been a place to find cool new technology," Johnston added. "But 2011 really could be the year when health care takes the next step toward what we've seen in sickbay on Star Trek."

About MedZilla.com:

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Source: PRWEB