By Erik Potter, Post-Tribune staff writer
Indiana's unemployment rate shifted higher in March, jumping up to 10 percent. But not all sectors of the economy are hurting. While manufacturing, particularly automotive manufacturing, has taken a hit across the state, other fields, such as health care, have fared better.
According to the recently revised list of the 50 fastest growing jobs in Indiana, compiled by the state Department of Workforce Development, health care takes three of the top four jobs, and six of the top 10.
Top growth areas are registered nurses, with an expected job growth rate of 2.4 percent annually, dental assistants with a 2.3 percent growth rate and pharmacists at a 1.7 percent rate.
Health workers wanted
Tony Ferracane, vice president of human resources at Community Healthcare Systems, which is made up of St. Catherine Hospital in East Chicago, St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart and Community Hospital in Munster, said he is still hiring for several positions, though at a slightly slower pace than usual due to less turnover among employees.
"People aren't leaving as quickly, so we're not hiring as much as we had in the past," Ferracane said. "(We're getting) a lot more applications, a lot more interest in health care. I'd say (jobs) are concentrated in our nursing areas now. We certainly are always looking at medical assistants to help out in doctor's offices and clinics. We're always looking for certified nursing assistants, which is a pretty good program where people can have a pretty good job in health care."
For Mark Rogers, going into health care was not just a matter of job security, but a matter of what he was passionate about. A semester away from his licensed practical nursing degree, and two semesters away from an associate of science in nursing at Ivy Tech's Gary campus, Rogers is set to work this summer as a nursing fellow at Community Hospital in Munster on the surgical floor, and parlay that into a full-time job after graduation. He'll continue his education while he's working.
Laid off after 15 years at Pittsburgh Tube in Chicago Heights, Ill., Rogers got the chance to go, on the company's dime, for the medical training he had dreamed of since he was a kid sitting in a hospital bed with joint pain from his juvenile arthritis.
"I spent six months (going to) the hospital," Rogers said. "I pretty much lived there. People kept asking me if I wanted to be a doctor, you know, because of the stereotype with male doctors ... but you don't see your doctors. I didn't know my doctors. I knew my nurses.
Medicine not the only thing
Nursing and medicine are not the only safe job fields, however. Jennifer Jones-Hall, interim director of Valparaiso University's Career Center, points to several areas she directs VU students toward, including defense, agriculture and food processing, and oil and gas production.
Jones-Hall stresses the importance of being flexible in a down job market, saying mobility is more important than ever. "They need very flexible people who can drop everything for travel, as well as those who work long and hard hours," she said.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was crafted to pump money into construction and green energy. While those effects have yet to make their impact locally, some projects are in the works.
Lake County commissioners hired a consultant to put together options for using their nearly $3 million in energy efficiency block grant money.
Commissioner Gerry Scheub, D-Schererville, would like to see the money used to hire a firm to install solar panels or a wind turbine to help power the county's juvenile center or jail. Whatever is done, he wants it to be something that will bring down the cost of operating the county's buildings.
The Lake County Sheriff's Department is planning on using, in par, a judicial assistance grant that was given a boost of funding in the stimulus bill, to refill four officer positions that otherwise would have been left vacant.
The Portage Police Department is considering using money from another program, also given a big infusion of stimulus cash, to hire as many as three police officers.