HP Job Trends

[FRAMEP@ORAU.GOV]

Howdy:

The ORISE report "Labor Market Trends for Health Physicists Through
2000" is now available. A summary will probably show up sooner or
later in the HPS Newsletter but if you want a copy now (they're free)
you can contact Ms. Duveen Shirley at (423) 576 3409  or
shirleyd@orau.gov.   The analysis limits itself to nonmedical HP
positions in the US.

Some highlights:

"Based on current trends, even at the higher rate of attrition [the
optimistic scenario] the number of potential job openings will be
considerably less than the average available supply of new graduates
during the last several years of the decade". At present "there
appears to be a balance between the demand for and the supply of new
health physics graduates; however... the number of positions
available are far fewer than in prior years and successful job
searches are taking longer". No surprise there.

In 1994, starting salaries for bachelor's degreed HPs averaged 34
kilobucks, slightly less than for nuclear engineers but considerably
higher than that for other sciences. Beginning HPs with masters
degrees were getting 37.7 kilobucks, less than nuke engineers but
more than those with degrees in other sciences (except computer
science).

Between 1991 and 1993 "by far the fastest growing segment [job
classification] was waste management and decommissioning"

Enrollment in HP programs has been increasing steadily since 1988 to
an alltime high of 1,129 in 1994. Judging from one of the graphs, it
would seem that awarded HP degrees also reached an alltime high in
1994, or came very close to it. Although not addressed in this
report, I believe this increase is primarily due to undergraduate, vs
masters level, programs.

Best wishes

Paul Frame
Professional Training Programs
Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education
framep@orau.gov