Despite sporadic hiring freezes within the medical field, several Denver-area health care companies aren’t scaling back hiring efforts.
At a health care job fair in the Denver Tech Center on Wednesday, 950 job seekers, including 140 nurses, learned they are still in high demand.
“We’re still hiring full-force,” said Kim Istwan, recruiter for Denver Health, which employs roughly 5,000 workers. “We need people in all clinical areas. We are not in a hiring freeze. There is always a need for more staff.”
Twenty-one health care businesses attended Wednesday’s Post-News job fair — among them were health centers, mental-health centers, hospice services and in-house care. Most viewed registered nurses and medical clinicians as the hottest commodities.
“If I could find and walk away with 30 to 40 nurses today, I could keep them all busy,” said Larry Martin, administrator for Interim Healthcare. “The nursing shortage still weighs heavy on anybody who’s in health care. Often the biggest challenges of almost any company in this room is probably staffing — not having enough people.”
Martin estimated that Interim Healthcare made conditional job offers to about 50 people Wednesday.
Although most jobs in health care remain stable, Wednesday’s fair hinted at a sense of caution by industry employers. According to Post-News job fair manager Jill Behr, companies advertising job openings at fairs have decreased by nearly half — from an average of 40 last year to 21 Wednesday — while the number of job-seeking attendees has increased by about 200 to 300 people .
“It’s a reflection that some health care companies are pulling back,” Behr said. “But the good news today is that there are plenty of hiring needs.”
The search has proved to be more competitive for some.
Rushane Harris, 49, changed careers and earned a degree in health care management from Anthem College in Phoenix a year and a half ago. Harris, who works at a hospice, said she has been unsuccessful so far in finding an administrative job that is a better fit for her degree.
“They require you to have many years of experience and certification,” Harris said. “It has been a challenging environment for those who want to cross over and change careers like I did.”
Anthony Bowe: 303-954-1698 or abowe@denverpost.com
