Thousands of telecom and software jobs in Colorado have disappeared during the past five years.
But that downturn has been cushioned by substantial growth in health care employment.
Since 2001, Colorado’s health care industry has created 29,100 new positions, the most of any industry group, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Meanwhile, the information sector has shed about 38,000 positions in that time, including 21,400 telecom jobs.
The health care boom has benefited people such as Helena LaValle, who lives near Longmont. But some economists wonder if the growth in health care spending will eventually be a drag on the economy.
LaValle, 46, lost her job with Continental Airlines after the company shuttered its Denver call center after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
“I was open to anything at that point,” recalled LaValle, who said she considered looking for work in the technology industry but instead went to nursing school.
She graduated in May from Front Range Community College and “had an easy time” landing work at Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette.
Competition for health care talent has raised the average pay for nurses, pharmacists and radiology technologists by 30 percent or more in Colorado since 2001, according to a recent study by Kansas City, Kan.-based researcher Compdata Surveys.
A health care economy
Bob Morrison, director of recruitment for hospital operator Exempla Healthcare in Denver, said the nonprofit has hired more than 1,300 workers this year.
“There is a real big demand for health care people,” he said. “It’s very competitive.”
Nationwide, the number of health care jobs has grown by about 1.7 million positions since 2001, which accounts for almost all of the net private sector employment gains, according to Business Week magazine.
Relying too much on health care to sustain the economy could be troublesome, said Richard Wobbekind, an economist at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
America today spends about $2 trillion a year on health care, about 16 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That is expected to grow to 28 percent of GDP by 2030, the department estimates.
About half the current spending comes from private funds, including consumer payments and private health insurance, according to federal data.
The rest comes from public funds, including Medicare, Medicaid and governmental spending at all levels.
“There would a lot of questions as to how long we could sustain that and still have the economy grow at a decent pace,” Wobbekind said. “That would be a heavy burden to shoulder” by workers, companies and the federal government.
If America continues to spend more and more on health care, as projected, consumers may have less cash to spend on homes, cars and other items. It could also cause the nation’s budget deficit to swell if the federal government picks up a larger percentage of the tab.
Yet, that spending on wages, medical research and administrative costs is, in part, recycled back into the U.S. economy, said Uwe Reinhardt, a Princeton University economist and health care expert.
“It’s good for the economy – every dollar stays in the U.S.” Reinhardt said. “The reason people think health care spending is bad is because you are often paying for somebody else. People resent doing that.”
Higher wages
Colorado, with 2.28 million nonfarm payroll workers, this summer nudged past the all-time high of 2.27 million jobs set in December 2000. Financial services has added nearly 13,000 jobs since early 2001; the leisure and hospitality industry has added 17,000 jobs. There are several reasons why the state’s health care sector added 29,100 jobs in that time.
Wobbekind pointed to the construction of several hospitals in the metro area, which were needed after the state’s population surged during the late 1990s. New hospitals include Sky Ridge Medical Center in Lone Tree, which opened in 2003, and the 270-bed Children’s Hospital, set to open next fall.
Other factors include an aging population needing more care, and a relatively wealthier population willing to pay for it.
The Compdata survey reported that Colorado’s registered nurses made $58,919 on average in 2006, up 31 percent from 2001; radiology technologists earned $46,713 on average, up 47 percent; physical therapists made $55,446, up 20 percent; and pharmacists earned $96,079, up 29.9 percent.
That’s good news for Kelly Butler, who graduated from the CU School of Pharmacy in May and now works as a roving pharmacist for Walgreens in southern Colorado.
Butler said pharmacy students are constantly wooed by various companies. Walgreens, for example, picked up the tab for certain university events and treated her to breakfasts, lunches and lavish dinners.
“Anywhere you want to go, there will be a position for you at this point,” said Butler, 33. “And that’s great – no, that’s amazing. The market is just incredible.”
Staff writer Will Shanley can be reached at 303-954-1260 or wshanley@denverpost.com.
