Arizona Healthcare Jobs are Available

If you're looking for Arizona healthcare jobs, you have probably been discouraged lately, but a new report shows that the state has plenty of available positions in the industry.

Many experts consider healthcare to be a recession-proof industry, and in most places throughout the country that has held true. In Arizona, however, the healthcare industry has continued to lose jobs on a monthly and yearly basis.

Arizona's education and health services industry employed 318,300 workers during September, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is down from 319,600 workers during August and a 1.2 percent decrease from last year.

Despite those bleak looking statistics, The Arizona Republic recently reported that there are plenty of available healthcare opportunities throughout the state for potential employees with the right skills, as many prominent institutions are hiring.

Banner Health, which is the largest hospital in Arizona with 10 acute-care hospitals and a behavioral health center, currently has about 750 job openings. Available positions include those for occupational therapists, phlebotomists, physician assistants and non-clinical positions.

The Mayo Clinic Arizona, which operates a hospital in northeast Phoenix, as well as a research center and medical offices in Scottsdale, currently has openings for registered nurses, medical technologists, pharmacists, nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

Hospice of the Valley, a Phoenix-based nonprofit that provides in-home healthcare, currently has a handful of job openings for certified nursing assistants, as well as one position for a durable-medical-equipment coordinator.

The competition for any sort of healthcare job remains strong, though, as an influx of unemployed people seeking work gives employers the chance to be more selective about who they hire.

"We have more people applying for all of our positions," Yvette Martin, a recruitment strategist in the human-resources department at Mayo Clinic Arizona, said. "We are seeing three times as many candidates for a lot of our entry-level positions."

Anyone applying for nursing jobs will have tough competition, as a slew of new graduates from nursing programs at Arizona State University, Grand Canyon University and Maricopa Community Colleges compete for the same jobs.

Those applying for pharmacist jobs also can expect a good amount of competition from The University of Arizona and Midwestern University graduates. Jobs related to employer wellness programs, as well as dietitians and nutrition management, also are currently in high demand.