Healthcare, Green Tech Brighten Dim U.S. Jobs Picture
Date: 03-Aug-09
Country: US
Author: Steve Gorman - Analysis
Healthcare,
Green Tech Brighten Dim U.S. Jobs Picture Photo: Doug Murray/Florida Power
and Light Company/Handout
Photo: Doug Murray/Florida Power and Light Company/Handout
LOS ANGELES - Healthcare and clean energy rank as bright spots in a bleak
U.S. jobs market and both stand to generate even more employment under plans
put forward by President Barack Obama.
The health industry, bolstered by the demands of an aging population and
supplied by new technologies, has added jobs despite the recession and is
destined for further expansion should Obama make good on his promise of
affordable medical care for millions of uninsured Americans.
The mix of jobs is likely to shift as preventive medicine gets more
emphasis, record-keeping functions are modernized and fewer diagnostic tests
are ordered, economists say.
"Green" tech, propelled by efforts to cut carbon emissions blamed for global
warming, will benefit from an economic stimulus package enacted this year
and a climate change bill making its way through Congress.
Healthcare and the environment were singled out in a report this month by
Obama's Council of Economic Advisers as two sectors projected to be major
U.S. job engines over the next several years.
Investments in the two areas "are laying the foundation for long-term
economic growth," said Heather Boushey, an economist with the Center for
American Progress.
STRONG ECONOMIC MEDICINE
Healthcare has grown 3.7 percent since the recession began in December 2007,
while the labor force as a whole declined 4.7 percent, said Heidi Shierholz,
an Economic Policy Institute economist, citing U.S. Labor Department data.
One reason that medicine has held its own during the recession is that
nearly 60 percent of all healthcare costs are covered by the public sector,
including programs like Medicaid and Medicare, helping insulate the industry
from hard times, said labor professor Eileen Appelbaum of Rutgers
University.
"People think we have a private health system in this country, but more than
half is publicly financed," she said.
Budget strains are starting to take their toll on healthcare jobs in many
states, she said. But the Labor Department projects that U.S. healthcare
employment will grow 20 percent above 2006 levels by 2016, even without
Obama's proposed overhaul.
Government forecasts for clean energy and green technology jobs as a whole
are harder to come by.
Economists from the University of Massachusetts and the Center for American
Progress concluded in a study last month that the economic stimulus and the
climate-change bills would generate $150 billion a year in clean-energy
investments, netting 1.7 million new jobs annually.
GOING FOR GREEN
Most of those gains would come from retrofits of homes and other buildings
to improve energy efficiency and insulation. Other high-growth areas cited
in the report included renewable energy sources such as wind and solar
energy expanded public transportation and construction of a highly efficient
new electric distribution network, known as the smart grid.
Some of this money would come from direct government spending, matching
grants, tax incentives, loan guarantees and bonds. But private-sector
investments are expected to account for the lion's share, the study found.
Much of that would be induced by an expanded market for renewable energy and
conservation projects created by a carbon cap-and-trade system and other
measures for reducing greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Energy and
Security Act.
One downside is that little of the stimulus money for clean-energy projects
will come this year, with the bulk of spending expected to take place from
2010 to 2014.
Eileen Kohan, career planning and placement director at the University of
Southern California in Los Angeles, said growth in the green-tech sector
appeared sluggish based on recent efforts to help USC graduates find jobs.
"We've had tremendous difficulty trying to identify and attract employers in
that field," she said. "Last year, we tried to do a mini-career fair with
green careers, and we could not get more than a handful of companies."
College students are not the only ones eager to go green.
Seeing a potential boost to the slumping construction industry, home
builders and contractors have been clamoring for training and accreditation
in green technology.
"While things are quiet in the construction industry, the interest is rising
for education and credentialing," said Linda Sorrento of the nonprofit U.S.
Green Building Council.
'MANPOWER IS HUNGRY'
Demand for green retrofitting, home weatherization and solar-energy panel
installation has lagged due to tight cash and credit on the part of
recession-battered homeowners and businesses, she said.
"I'm struggling just to keep my door open," said Alan Abrams, owner of a
remodeling and construction firm in Washington, D.C., who recently took a
crash course in green design from the National Association of Home Builders.
"The manpower is there. The manpower is hungry, believe me."
Labor experts say green retrofitting should pick up and produce more jobs
once stimulus money begins to flow.
Abrams said too much emphasis appeared to be placed on solar power, wind
energy and other high-tech alternatives, as opposed to improvements in
energy conservation he says are more cost-effective and yield a faster
return on investment.
"You'll absolutely get much, much more for your money with a caulk gun than
you will with a photovoltaic cell," he said.
(Editing by Mary Milliken)
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