Hot Jobs

Looking for a career with excellent job prospects for the next several years in Southwest Florida? Health-care and

computer-related occupations are your best bet. Stay away from becoming a

fisherman, farmer, bank teller, typist, power line installer or

radio-television announcer—they’re among the occupations on the decline.

Southwest Florida’s fastest- and slowest-growing jobs are in

sync with statewide and national statistics. In our region, half of the 10

fastest-growing jobs are in the health-care field and three others in the

technology arena. (Parking lot attendant and paralegal round out the list,

based on annual percent change, according to research by the Florida Agency for

Workforce Innovation.)

In the state, the 10 fastest-growing jobs are equally

divided between health care and high-tech. Nationwide, computer-related

occupations dominate the top 10 projected from 2000 to 2010, as reported by the

U.S. Department of Labor. Health-care jobs are a solid second, accounting for

half of the top 20 fastest-growing jobs.

In Southwest Florida, demographics give the edge to

health-care jobs. Figures from the state’s workforce agency, which compiles employment

forecasts for Southwest Florida (Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry and Lee

counties), list health services as the top industry, gaining the most new jobs.

The industry is projected to grow from 28,018 employees in

2001 to 37,712 in 2009.

Medical records technician, surgical technician, medical

assistant, respiratory therapist and physician assistant are among the top 10

fastest-growing occupations, based on annual percent change.

At NCH Healthcare System in Naples, these figures are

“absolutely consistent with our experience,” says Jim Cato, executive vice

president of clinical operations and chief nursing officer. “Our need for

workers is growing much faster than the supply.”

Local hospitals have the greatest number of job openings for

registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, radiation technologists,

pharmacists, nuclear medical technologists and medical technologists. NCH,

which employs 1,000 registered nurses, currently has around 100 positions to

fill. The radiology department has a 27-percent vacancy rate, and filling a

position can take at least three months. “By the time you fill one, another one

is open,” Cato says.

Hospitals are taking extreme measures to combat the

shortages. Both NCH and Lee Memorial, for example, offer sign-on bonuses that

rose as high as $10,000 a year ago, but are now about $2,500. Because of high

housing costs in Naples, there has been some discussion about providing help

with down payments on homes for employees, says NCH’s Cato. In Orange County,

which includes Orlando, nurses can qualify for up to $7,500 in assistance if

they’re buying a first home. “Once you own a home, you are more likely to

stay,” Cato explains.

As fast as these categories grow, others are on a downward

slide and are unlikely to recover. Commercial fishermen, hunters, trappers and

farmers—all once a mainstay of the area’s economy—are shrinking along with

Southwest Florida’s wilderness.

Another telling statistic is the list of occupations that

will employ the most new workers. These are the figures that Lee County’s

Economic Development Commission is more likely to refer to, says Pamela Cox,

communications specialist. With retail salesperson, cashier, waiter and

landscaper topping the list, these occupations reflect Southwest Florida’s

service-based economy. Economic development officials are working to attract

businesses that will bring more high-skill, high-wage positions into the area’s

economy.

Preparing the Workforce

Local students are going where the jobs will be, with

increasing applications and enrollment in the health care programs at Florida

Gulf Coast University and Edison Community College. In ECC’s radiologic

technology program, for example, applications for admission jumped from 100 in

2001 to close to 200 this year, says Paul Monagan, the college’s district

director of health technologies.

NCH Healthcare System and ECC also are encouraging this

trend, teaming up to offer a Collier County-based nur-sing program open to 48

students who will do their classroom work at ECC’s Collier campus and their

clinical work at NCH. Students will receive a full scholarship in return for a

commitment to work at NCH—one year for every $5,000 of the scholarship. NCH

hopes to expand the program to other health professions, including radiologic

technology and respiratory therapy.

Reid Lennertz, interim director of career development

services at FGCU, says virtually all graduates with health- care or education

degrees this spring were offered jobs. Other fields of study showing

significant growth at FGCU—perhaps as a result of 9-11—are in the College of

Professional Studies, which includes criminal justice and social work.

Neither school recommends that students pursue a course of

study just because it’s part of a fast-growing field. “We don’t talk to students

about what is hot, but about their skills, values and interests,” says Jaylyn

Stahl, district director for career and employment services. “What’s hot today

may not be hot when they graduate.”

Breathing Easier

Respiratory therapist Sandra Koren enjoys her ever-changing role.

As a respiratory therapist at NCH Healthcare System in

Naples, Sandra Koren has no plans to leave the profession—at least not until

she retires. The job has changed dramatically over the years, but Koren still

loves her career.

Koren has been a health-care professional for 27 years,

spending the last 17 years at NCH. After becoming a licensed practical nurse in

1976, she received some on-the-job training in respiratory therapy and returned

to school to get her certification.

Since then, the occupation has risen to a new level. She has

more responsibility, and the equipment she uses is constantly being improved.

“When I started out, respiratory therapists just did basic therapy and writing

down numbers on ventilators,” she explains. Now they perform patient

assessments and protocols, which means creating individualized diagnostic and

therapeutic respiratory care procedures that patients must follow to improve

and maintain health.

Koren’s typical day starts at 6:30 a.m. and ends at 7:15

p.m. She generally works three 12-hour shifts each week. Her job includes

making assignments for the six to eight others who are on duty with her. She

works in the intensive care unit, making ventilator rounds and responding to

cardiac arrests. She also works on patient education, pulmonary rehabilitation

and smoking cessation programs.

“It’s challenging and rewarding,” says Koren. “I like coming

to work. I love my patients.”

Rough Waters

Shane Dooley finds it’s tough to survive as a commercial fisherman.

Shane Dooley is a young man in a dying profession. At one

time commercial fishing was a thriving industry that offered a good living to

hardworking families on Pine Island. Then came tourism, sport fishermen and the

1995 net ban. Today the commercial fishing industry on Pine Island is greatly

diminished, and fishing is one of the slowest-growing occupations in the

region.

Dooley, 23, is not ready to give up. “First of all, I love

the water. My grandpa fished for a living and had a good life. My dad fishes

and has had a good life. I’m just following them,” he says.

Dooley’s mother, Rhonda, is president of the Pine Island

Chapter of the Florida Fisherman’s Federation and director of the Resource

Preservation Alliance, a legal defense fund that helps fight the net ban in

court. The net ban, an amendment to the Florida constitution, outlawed certain

types of nets and has effectively dried up the commercial fishing industry on

Pine Island and in similar fishing communities in the state.

With few people entering the vocation, Dooley is one of the

youngest commercial fishermen on local waters. He has had his own boat since he

was 12 and has been a full-time fisherman since graduating from Mariner High

School. His business has been good enough to enable him to buy a house and a

new Dodge pickup truck. “I’m making a living for now,” he says, “but the future

doesn’t look all that promising. In the next five or 10 years, I don’t know…”

Dooley isn’t considering another job. “I’ll do it as long as

I can,” he says.