Dive Brief:
- Health and education workers comprise 21.2% of Philadelphia’s labor market, the highest concentration in 15 regions compared in a Cleveland State University study.
- Cleveland, which ranked fifth in “eds and meds” concentration, had the largest concentration of skilled healthcare workers among the benchmark regions —at 1.29%.
- The study was based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Dive Insight:
Following Philadelphia in healthcare jobs penetration were Pittsburgh and Boston, both at 21.1%, Milwaukee (19.3%), Cleveland (19.2%) and Baltimore (19.2%). Denver and Charlotte, NC, ranked lowest with 12.9% and 10.1%, respectively.
Looking at the location quotient of skilled healthcare workers, the highest concentrations, after Cleveland, were in Boston (1.23%), Pittsburgh (1.21%), Indianapolis (1.20%) and Detroit (1.17%). Charlotte again came in dead last at 0.89%.
When counting overall job growth in all economic sectors, however, Charlotte ranked first, adding 36,100 jobs between December 2014 and December 2015, according to Becker’s Hospital Review.
Nearly half of Cleveland’s eds and meds jobs are in hospitals, where local wages grew from an inflation-adjusted $50,013 in 2002 to $61,206 in 2014, the study says. The strong concentration of skilled healthcare workers and rise in wages should bode well for the region’s general economy, it adds.