Healthcare is the only industry really adding jobs over the past year or two. That’s bad news for young men, who account for less than 1 in 4 workers in most healthcare segments.
Notably, this comes at a time when young men are already struggling in school and the workforce.
The good news: there’s nothing stopping men from pursuing jobs in healthcare. Broadly, society should encourage this. Specifically, more men should pursue jobs as nurses and dental hygienists (guygienists).
Seriously. Both jobs have a median pay of roughly $94,000/year, according to the BLS, and that’s just the median. The top 10% of registered nurses and dental hygienists make upwards of $130,000 per year.
Yes, these jobs generally require associate degrees, but the career path is straightforward. Get the degree. Pass the test. Get the job.
And young men will get the job because 1) there are massive shortages of both nurses and hygienists, 2) these jobs are so dominated by women (about 9/10 are female) that male job candidates stand out, and 3) these jobs are not likely to be replaced by AI any time soon (someone else can test the catheter-placing robot).
Some of you are probably wondering why I’m not encouraging young men to pursue the trades. Rest assured, I do! We need more skilled construction workers, there are great careers to be had, the career paths are also straightforward, etc., etc.
You know these arguments for the trades because they’re pretty common. That’s just not the case for men and healthcare jobs.
As a final point: healthcare fares exceptionally well during economic downturns (and also just in general over the past 3 decades).
What’s Next
This week brings us a ton of economic data, none more important than tomorrow’s jobs report. We’ll dive into that and more in Week in Review, our every-Friday post that covers all the economic news and data in a breezy, five-minute read.
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