Health Care Job Industry Robust, Demand Expected to Remain High

A health care professional prepares to enter a patient's room in a file photo. Megan Jelinger/AFP via Getty Images

When South Carolina resident Erin Dance was admitted into the radiologic technology program at Greenville Technical College in 2023, she knew from day one that a career in health care was going to be unendingly demanding and fraught with challenges, requiring a certain mixture of mental toughness and aptitude that relatively few of her fellow hopefuls would be able to handle.

But she also knew that if she lasted, she would practically be guaranteed a job long before she graduated, and potentially spend the next 40 or more years in an eternal profession.

“I began receiving offers of employment as a student technologist at the end of my first [summer semester],” Dance, now in her second year at the college, told The Epoch Times via email.

“I obtained a limited license and began working in the fall of 2024 as a student radiographer with Prisma Health.”

As the U.S. population keeps growing and getting older, students across the country such as Dance are not only going to have the advantage of a ready-made career path, but the confidence of being in an industry that is expected to grow for generations to come.

“Over one-quarter (3.3 million) of new jobs in the next seven years will be in the health care and social assistance sector,” Stephanie Melhorn, senior director of Workforce & International Labor Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in a 2023 report.

She added that through 2032, health care is expected to grow at an annual rate of 15.4 percent—the highest among 22 major U.S. industries including transportation, legal services, engineering, computer and mathematical, construction, and business and finance.

One reason, cited by online job search engine Indeed, is because health care jobs cannot be duplicated by artificial intelligence. People have to deal face to face with others. Another reason is that there is a critical shortage of workers in many health fields.

“Personnel shortages are already evident across most of the healthcare roles on this year’s list of top jobs, including clinical psychologists, physicians, nurses, and radiologists,” Jocelyne Gafner, an Indeed editor, wrote in a recent online post.

“Unlike in some industries, where advances in generative AI could be deployed to help bridge worker gaps, many healthcare tasks require a human touch and cannot be easily outsourced, underscoring the continued stability and importance of the healthcare sector.”

In the same posting, Gafner listed the “25 Best Jobs of 2025,” six of which were related to health care, including physician, clinical psychologist, radiologist, registered nurse, director of clinical services, and veterinarian.

The major factor for choosing health care as a career, as attested by Dance and other health care personnel, is that employment in every area is all but guaranteed.

“Over 90 percent of our graduates have placement in the field,” Dr. Candice B. Lewis, dean of the School of Health Sciences at Greenville Technical College, told The Epoch Times via email.

“Our graduates work at Prisma Health, Bon Secours-Mercy Health, AnMed Health, and Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System. We also work very hard to prepare students to take and pass the required credentialing exams upon program completion.”

In 2023, the U.S. health care industry employed more than 17 million people, making it the largest employment sector in the United States.

The same year, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) reported that 5,491 qualified applicants were turned away from master’s programs, and another 4,461 qualified applicants were turned away from doctoral programs due to a shortage of faculty, preceptors, and clinical education sites.

The attraction to health care for so many people, in part, is a calling to take care of people or animals, usually within a specialized field of expertise.

While consistently in demand, health care jobs also rank among the best-paying and offer strong career growth prospects.

For example, midwives earn an average annual salary of $112,971 nationally in 2024 and have an expected job growth rate of 38 percent from 2022 to 2032, which is above average. Similarly, medical and service managers earn a national average annual salary of $84,443 and have an expected job growth rate of 28 percent, according to Indeed’s latest career guide.

“Many opportunities for these program graduates, as well as respiratory care, medical assistant, computed tomography, health information management (records), and medical laboratory technology are also in demand in our area,” Dr. Lewis said.

“Additionally, there are private therapy offices in the Upstate that employ our occupational and physical therapy assistant graduates. We also have graduates who will relocate to other areas of South Carolina or out of state for employment.”

As for Dance, she is not yet certain where she will want to start her first job upon graduation, whether she will stay in South Carolina or move to another state, or whether she will end up staying in one place for her entire career or trying places in different parts of the country.

But once her degree is in hand, she—and many others in many other health care fields—will truly be able to write her own ticket just about anywhere.

“Knowing I have a job in the field as a student [with] opportunities after graduation for jobs has given me a feeling of comfort and security,” Dance said. “It makes me feel very good about the hard work I have put in as a student while in the program.”