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In Spring 2012, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported its 10-year job projections for the gamut of professional industries. For most college graduates, the data speaks to a still-tough job market: one in two college graduates are currently jobless or underemployed. But one degree has risen steadily: health and sciences.
But the growth is not all due to conventional medicine. The Bureau projects that jobs in chiropractic will increase 28 percent by 2020 – placing the field of chiropractic at a much faster growth rate than most professions.
The Reason: The profession’s growth is driven by an upward trend and popularity in natural, holistic healthcare in the preventive space. Nearly two in five Americans opt for these therapies, spending nearly $34 billion a year. And as aging Baby Boomers continue to face musculoskeletal problems and falls, the industry itself will boom.
The trend has brought with it rising demand for practitioners, fueling growth and interest in educators like Parker University that prepare students for those types of careers.
“The chiropractic profession is at a critical intersection,” said Dr. Fabrizio Mancini, President of Parker University, a health science institution that offers degrees in chiropractic. “America’s healthcare industry is facing extreme costs, an obesity epidemic and meteoric rates of prescription drug abuse. People are demanding options in the natural, preventive space and we are educating students to meet that huge demand.”
