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Health Care Jobs Hardy

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By MICHAEL SASSO msasso@tampatrib.com

The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 24, 2009

TAMPA - With the Tampa Bay area's unemployment rate continuing to surge, a growing number of people appear to be pinning their job hopes on the health care industry.

Across the area, health care companies and medical staffing agencies report a significant rise in the number of job applicants, many of whom are attracted by the stability of the health care industry. While almost every industry in the state has been losing jobs recently, health care is a rare exception and has added an estimated 37,200 jobs in the past year, according to figures released Friday by the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation.

"We have been inundated for months with candidates who want to get into health care because they see it as stable," said Seymie Wilkerson, area vice president of staffing agency All Medical Personnel in Tampa. "It's been a very interesting seven to nine months."

On Friday, the state released ugly unemployment figures for itself and the Tampa Bay area. Locally, the unemployment rate hit 8.3 percent in December, a jump from 7.9 percent in November and up from 4.7 percent in December 2007. That compares with the state's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 8.1 percent and the U.S. jobless rate of 7.2 percent.

Almost every industry in Florida has been feeling the pain recently. Construction, for example, continues to be hammered, losing 15.6 percent of its jobs over the past year, and retailers have shed 5.2 percent of their jobs.

Health care, however, continues to hold up relatively well. Some hospitals have cut workers here and there, industry officials say; but in most cases, health care companies have flat employment rolls or are selectively hiring. Statewide, employment at physicians' offices is up 6.6 percent over the past year, employment at nursing homes is up 3.9 percent and jobs at hospitals are up 2.8 percent.

That has caused many job seekers to flood health care companies with applications, even if there aren't enough jobs to go around.

Amy Lovett, communications director for BayCare Health System, which operates health care facilities including the St. Joseph's, St. Anthony's and Morton Plant hospital systems, received 121,092 job applications last year. That's up about 55 percent from 2007, when BayCare received 78,236 applications. The company attributes the increase to the economy, because it didn't open any additional major facilities in that year, Lovett said.

BayCare continues to hire, especially for registered nurses and lab technicians. The company's turnover rate among support positions, however, such as information technology, human resources and other noncare providers, is exceptionally low right now because people don't want to risk leaving. So, there are few ancillary jobs available, she said.

Among other signs that people are seeking out health care jobs, Erwin Technical School in Tampa reports strong demand for its health education programs, which have about 700 students.

And at Maxim Staffing Solutions, which focuses heavily on nursing, recruiters are seeing continued demand for nurses to work in the Bay area's jails and prisons.

In some cases, Maxim's clients are cutting back on hiring contract nurses.

"But corrections is not going anywhere. It's been a big niche for us," said Maxim accounts manager Ryan Burd.

Reporter Michael Sasso can be reached at (813) 259-7865.

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