Posted on 03/06/2006 6:26:48 AM PST by Angus MacGregor
Today's Most Unpopular Jobs
By Laura Morsch, CareerBuilder.com writer
Is there a severe labor shortage looming for the United States? It depends whom you ask. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects a labor force of 162.3 million people by 2012. At the same time, the BLS predicts that the 2012 economy will require 165.3 million jobs to be filled.
For years, doomsayers have interpreted these statistics to mean the economy will experience a shortage of 3 million workers. But this simply isn't true, insisted Michael W. Horrigan in the February 2004 issue of the BLS' Monthly Labor Review.
Horrigan wrote that multiple job holding and statistical differences between the BLS and Current Employment Statistics surveys, not an impending labor shortage, account for the differences between the numbers.
Although the BLS says there will not be a generalized shortage, certain jobs will experience a shortage of qualified workers. Here are five that are expected to be hit particularly hard:
1. Registered Nurse
The nursing shortage has been fairly well-publicized. According to a report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human services, there was a shortage of 110,000 RNs in 2000, or about 6 percent of the national demand. The shortage is expected to grow to 29 percent by 2020.
What's causing this dramatic shortage? For one thing, the report states there will be an 18 percent increase in the population by 2012. Plus, the aging of the baby boomers will result in a larger proportion of elderly people. To make matters worse, after 2011 the number of nurses leaving the profession is expected to exceed the number entering it.
Nursing salaries are increasing to help boost interest. The starting salary for registered nurses was nearly $39,000 in an April 2005 survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. According to the BLS, median annual salaries were $53,640 in November 2004.
2. Machinist
In Deloitte's 2005 Skills Gap Report, 90 percent of respondents indicated a moderate to severe shortage of qualified skills production employees like machinists, who use machine tools, such as lathes, machining centers and milling machines to produce precision metal parts.
Machinists are becoming ever-more productive, but job opportunities for machinists are expected to be excellent, according to the BLS. These days, many young people are choosing to attend college or are shying away from production occupations. Thus, there are not enough new machinists to fill newly created jobs or replace experienced machinists who leave the occupation or retire.
According to the Princeton Review, the average starting salary for a machinist is $22,500. The median salary for machinists is just over $34,000, according to the BLS.
3. Librarian
Studies have shown that librarians are expected to exit the profession en masse in coming years. The American Library Association Web site quotes statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau indicating that more than one-quarter of all librarians will reach the age of 65 by 2009. A study published in the Library Journal found that 40 percent of library directors would retire by that same year.
In addition to the librarians expected to retire within the next decade, interest in the profession is waning among younger workers, according to the BLS. The situation is particularly dire for colleges and universities, which report the greatest difficulty in hiring librarians due to lower pay.
Graduates of library programs in 2004 reported an average starting salary of more than $39,000, an increase of nearly 3 percent over the previous year. The median salary for librarians is nearly $47,000, according to the BLS.
4. Truck Driver
Getting those eBay packages delivered might take longer by 2014. A report prepared for the American Trucking Associations by Global Insight, Inc. warns there is already a shortage of about 20,000 long-haul heavy-duty truck drivers. By 2014, the deficit is expected to reach 111,000.
The report blames slipping wages for the shortage. Trucking wages fell sharply with the onset of the recession in 2000 and have yet to recover. According to the BLS, the median salary for heavy or tractor-trailer truck drivers is $33,870.
5. Pharmacist
What, no refills? Pharmacists should have no trouble finding a job in coming years. A recent report from the Pharmacy Manpower Project predicted there will be a shortage of 157,000 pharmacists by 2020. Already, the American Hospital Association reports a 7.4 percent vacancy rate for pharmacists.
The shortage can be partially attributed to the aging population and the fact that more drugs are being manufactured and advertised to the public. In fact, the number of prescriptions has increased from 2 billion to 3.2 billion in the last 10 years. That problem is expected to worsen with the new Medicare prescription drug program that began Jan. 1, pharmacy officials told CNN in November.
To help cope, universities are opening new pharmacy programs and expanding existing ones. The high pay currently offered by pharmacist employers can't hurt, either. The BLS reports the median salary for pharmacists is over $87,000.
Laura Morsch is a writer for CareerBuilder.com. She researches and writes about job search strategy, career management, hiring trends and workplace issues.
You know how when you unpack a rectal thermometer the little piece of paper says "each unit individually tested"? Makes for a long day, Iwannatellya...
I think the drones at the BLS should go out, get real jobs, and get off the taxpayer's back.
"According to the Princeton Review, the average starting salary for a machinist is $22,500. The median salary for machinists is just over $34,000, according to the BLS."
Gee, someone who actually knows how to make something gets $34,000 a year but if you have a degree in Womyn's Studies or Government you can land a job here in Boulder County as a "Diversity Coordinator" for $80,000 +. Go figure.
Michael Jackson's nose repairman.
My mom just retired. She worked as a school nurse for 30 years, middle schools, universities and her favorite--elementary school. One of the things she liked best about it was the autonomy.
It took the administration 8 months to find a replacement for her, partially because it was such a big school and they only had one position. Potential candidates saw the workload and found greener pastures.
Big money in that my friend.
No, Michael Moore's Proctologist
Worse than Windows? I understand Unix, but cannot make head nor tails of Windows.
Sure, there's a shortage--at the wages employers want to pay!
I suppose these articles are simply trying to move the supply curve upward, so that more applicants for job X will be found at any given wage--such as the one employers want to pay.
I would think that a being a GOOD librarian (University library, for instance) would easily be comparable to a machinist.
At the local library, you have to deal with the portion of the public that has time on their hands and also can't figure things out without a librarian. Insert your own joke here.
bump
< ]B^)
How much longer do we need Pharmacists? The technology certainly exists today to automate pill dispensing. I suppose there are some ointments and suspensions that get mixed at the point of sale, but I am not sure that really requires 6 years of Education.
A machinist builds parts for....planes....ships......trains......nuclear weapons................hell, just about everything that keeps the world spinning.
If all the librarians in the country up and disappeared one day, the nation wouldn't miss a step.
If all the machinists disappeared, society as we know it would collapse.
So, why do librarians make more than machinists?
How would kids get access to porn if all the librarians were not there fighting for their rights?
And every parts machining business in the U.S. is backed up for months.
Go for it brwn! My daughter is a RN and she loves it. It was her lifes dream to work with children and she is doing so at ARnold Palmer's Childrens' Hospital.
She works three, 12 hour shifts per week and they give you 4 weeks vacation when you're hired. hard to beat that as a young person.
Having gone through Graduate School and made extensive use of the Engineering Library, I wouldn't say that.
There are plenty of librarians that shelve the books, etc. These are the people that you are thinking of. It is necessary, but as you described, appropriate for a lower paid position.
The ones I am thinking of are the "Librarians", the real ones. These are the people that understand what is in the stacks, make recommendations on new acquisitions, set library 'strategy' and budgets, and consult with Professors and patrons to determine what is needed. Walk in to one of these places with a question on any obscure topic, and they can tell you the top five books in the fields, whether they have it, and if they don't who does, all from memory.
I mean the people who know what the cutting edge researchers in a field need before the researchers themselves know it.
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