If you’re interested in planning for a career as a surgical tech, it can be very helpful to get a pulse of the expected outlook for surgical tech jobs over the coming years. In this article, we’ll take a brief look at the surgical tech jobs outlook for the next decade as well as the factors which may have an impact on the availability of open positions and the surgical tech salary.
Surgical Tech Jobs Outlook
As of the last complete U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics survey, there were over 91,000 surgical tech jobs throughout the country. While over 70% of these jobs are located in hospital operating rooms and birth and delivery floors, a growing number of opportunities are developing in many other health care areas as well. The BLS expects an increase of approximately 25% in the number of available surgical tech jobs through the year 2018, which is a very rapid clip for expansion. This makes becoming a surgical technologist a very attractive career choice for anyone who is interested in finding a new profession in the health care industry.
Factors Which Impact the Number of Surgical Tech Jobs
There are two primary factors which will lead to a significant increase in the number of surgical tech jobs over the next decade. The first is the aging of the large segment of our population referred to as the “baby boomer” generation. With this large number of people reaching older ages, the demand for surgical procedures will grow significantly over the next few years to a level which the health care industry has not yet experienced.
The second major factor leading to the increase in employment opportunities for surgical technologists is the advancement of surgical procedure technology. Major advances in the way that lasers and other technologies are used to treat patients surgically are allowing surgeons to conduct procedures with a smaller number of support personnel and with less time required to complete them. This has led to an overall increase in the demand for surgical techs in the facilities that are using these advanced procedures.
If you are seriously considering a career as a surgical tech, the forecast has made this a very exciting time to gain entry into the profession.
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