Clinical Laboratory Technologists and Technicians Are Among Top Growth Jobs for Next Decade
U.S. News & World Report identifies medical technologists as among best career opportunities in healthcare
Laboratory technologists and laboratory technicians are a top career for 2010, as identified by U.S. News & World Report’s (USNWR) new annual list of the top 50 careers list. Clinical laboratories will be pleased that the lab technologist career is third in the healthcare category, after X-ray technician and veterinarian.
Editors at U.S. News & World Report laud the role of laboratory techs, writing that “Clinical lab technicians and technologists are very much the unsung heroes of the healthcare industry.” USNWR’s 2010 career list ranks occupations in five categories according to anticipated job growth and median average income.
The analysis was based on the U.S. Labor Department’s latest job growth projections for 2008 to 2018. It highlights occupations that are expected to add jobs above the anticipated 10% average growth rate over the next decade and which will also provide a better-than-average median income.
Medical technologist (MT), clinical laboratory scientist (CLS), and medical laboratory technician (MLT) jobs are expected to rise 16%. The fastest job growth will come from clinical laboratories, pathology laboratories, and physician office laboratories (POLs). Last year, the pay range for a laboratory technologist was $28,420 to $44,310 and that puts overall median pay at $35,380, but U.S. News & World Report notes that some lab tech pay packages topped $54,000.
Here is USNWR’s list of America’s Best Careers 2010: Healthcare, with lab technician ranked as third:
2. Veterinarian
8. Optometrist
9. Physical Therapist Assistant
10. Dental Hygienist
The analysis done by U.S. News & World Report includes occupations in each category with a range of educational requirements and other data when available, including such factors as job satisfaction, work environment, opportunity for mobility, and turnover. Lab tech jobs in clinical laboratories were described as low-stress, but, similar to hospital patient-care areas, medical laboratories often require 24-hour coverage.
Preparation is relatively minimal in terms of cost and time compared to other healthcare professions. A medical laboratory technician requires typically just a technician certificate or two-year associates degree for an entry-level position in a clinical laboratory.
Another positive factor for job growth in MT, CLS, and MLT positions, according to USNWR, is the fact that health care stands out as the only industry that expanded payrolls during the recession due to increasing demand for healthcare services.
High demand for healthcare services over the last decade may be just a tip of the iceberg of what’s to come, however. Editors at U.S. News & World Report write that “The growth trend in healthcare is almost unstoppable: Millions and millions of aging baby boomers will continue to place a heightened demand on healthcare providers, as well as provide plenty of opportunity for medical innovation.”
Clinical laboratory managers and pathologists may want to make the U.S. News & World Report list of “50 Best Careers of 2010” part of their medical technologist recruiting package. It validates the fact that demand for MTs, CLS’, and MLTs will remain quite strong for many years into the future. – P. Kirk
Related Information:
The 50 Best Careers of 2010 as chosen by U.S. News & World Report
America’s Best Careers 2010: Healthcare
America’s 50 Best Careers of 2010: Laboratory Technician
Wall Street Journal Headline: ‘Staff Shortages in Labs May Put Patients at Risk’
Lab Workers Make “10 Germiest Jobs in America” List
Having spent the last 39 years as a clinical laboratory scientist, I find this article [written by U.S. News & World Report] to be QUITE misleading, although it is about time that someone thought to put this much-needed career in the public eye! Please understand that, to be a clinical lab scientist, a FOUR year degree PLUS a year internship is required. It is a stressful job-every result that goes out could cause someone to die! Of course, we like to be more positive and say that we save lives, which is certainly more the case, although the good that we do in saving those lives does not rate the news coverage that a disaster does.Also, the monetary compensation is usually somewhat more that the stated salary range. It is a rewarding job…please remember that we tell the pharmacist what drugs are needed, the physician whether a patient is too anemic for surgery, the nurse whether the patient needs to be isolated from her other patients because of infection…whether blood transfusions are needed…the list goes on.
Again, it is good to see this career mentionned in a positive light. The facts are simply not what I have personally experienced.
Reading the article would leave me cold when it came to choosing to be a lab tech. I have been in this profession and recognize that the author has not spent any time in a hospital laboratory. More than 70 % of the objective information on a patient’s chart comes from the laboratory. We are giving clean,scientifically founded, and precise results to the physician. Unlike other professions that work in the hospital, there are no physicians reviewing our work, no middle man (woman) to review, inspect, direct our results. Just the clinical lab professionals do that. We are not handing off an Xray to a physician, reading the physicians pharmacy orders or calling the attending for answers. Please do not look at this as being mean spirited to other professionals but I know when it comes to objective information… black and white information, it is the technologists who do it. The reason our profession was started was because early physicians didn’t have the time to spend in the lab and gave those duties to the scientist, while the patient’s bed and feeding were given to nurses. Nurses being aware of their potential took their professiona and made it indispensible. I agree they are indispensible. We techs were stuck in the lab away from the patients. No one noticed us and we let our main organization ASCP be responsible for our legacy. Unfortunately ASCP was run by physicians and they kept us in the basements, while nursing pulled ahead.
Thre is no malice meant, it is just how many of us see our profession. 89 % of my colleagues in this laboratory are bachelor degreed, how many of our nurses are… not nearly that high, but we are still in the basement. My advise..pick a position that you love and be happy. I have been in the blood bank since 1970 and have loved every stressful minute even while knowing the docs and the nurses are given the kudos for our work.
I must say that am quite surprised to learn from the contributions of some of my professional colleagues that Medical lab. Scientists in the west are also not accorded their well deserved respected within the health care system. In Nigeria, where I have practiced in almost all the disciplines, for over 20yrs the story is the same, if not worse. The Doctors and the nurses take all the glory whereas the lab is only remembered when it is required to salvage desperate situations. Well, I am in the Lab. today because it is my calling and am quite passionate about it. I strongly believe that any good biomedical scientist has this passion as the only motivating force. God will continue to bless us. Thank you.
Just the feeling that one day things will get better keeps me on track.Medical Laboratory Science is a life saving profession without which the physicians will in no way make it to the promised land. But why do the physicians think they have it all despite the fact that they know they don’t? Fortunately, We are beginning to get along now, but the old professionals need to give us the credit we deserve at least to aid in the attainment of the target: patients’ care. They need to trust our diagnosis, else the repercussion is to kill innocent lives. Saying abusive words in clinical meeting will never solve a problem out of the many we have at hand. Having known the capabilities of each other right from school the young medical students learn to respect our findings, which is not the case with the old physicians. Why won’t they let things play out as they are? It is for everyone’s sake. The patients most importantly.
Good post, thanks for it!
Wow, the comments are excellent! I do have a bachelor’s degree in biomedical science as well as other things and I do love the lab and that is why I am headed there. It is the only reason because the pay is simply not there for the knowledge I will enter this field with at a non-profit hospital. I have 7+ years of college and will enter the work force making approximately $20/hr. This does include tuition, retirement, health, dental and many life benefits, but it still isn’t enough.
I know I sound greedy, but is our job any less important than say a pharmacist at Walgreens making $48 to $50 per hour plus huge sign on bonuses? Don’t say I should have been a pharmacist either because I have that under my belt and went for the fast cash. I wasn’t happy and I am changing careers mid-life to something I enjoy, not for the money.
The pay is ok, but it is under nursing at the local non-profit hospital and this I totally disagree with. There are fast track RN programs where they are not required to have a BS and then get out of the program making more money. I have NEVER understood this.
This position does have a ton of responsiblity. It may not have the direct patient contact that an RN or a PCT has, but the information provided by the lab is priceless. Even the pharmacist uses it to make decisions, how ironic?
I know I will enjoy what I do and after being in the work force for 20+ yrs prior to returning to college this is a key point for me. I just hope pay might increase as a seasoned generation retires and the new crop of labbies comes up in ranks and the labs realize the shortage and the need. With the shortage comes a lot of job opportunities and choices. If the pay isn’t there the turn over will greatly increase as techs “shop around” for the best packages.
We shall see……………..