A recent survey shows a high demand for medical assistant graduates in the San Francisco Bay Area. However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms that this trend is not just isolated to California.
If you’re looking for medical assistant careers in the San Francisco Bay Area, you’re in luck! Medical Assistant careers offer the greatest growth within the allied health career field, according to the June 2010 Centers of Excellence Allied Health Employer Survey.
Over the next 12 months, 1,720 new positions are expected to be added in the California area. In 2009, 15,540 people worked in medical assistant careers.
How popular are medical assistant degrees?
In a survey of community colleges, medical assistant degrees were the most popular, although there are still ample positions for more graduates as Registered Nurses get replaced by Medical Assistants.
The research concludes, “It appears that there are just three occupations (Medical Assistants, Pharmacy Technicians, and Medical Laboratory Technician) that are being significantly under supplied.”
In fact, employers reported needing 930 more medical assistants than will likely be supplied over the next 12 months.
The vast majority of medical assistants (66 to 71 percent) have certifications from accredited community colleges, while 12 to 18 percent have high school diplomas only and 6 to 12 percent have associate’s degrees, and 4 percent have Bachelor’s degrees.
Is medical assistant a good starting career?
Working as a medical assistant is a great career move because it’s so quick and inexpensive to receive training. Often medical assistant courses are a great launch-pad into other medical positions like Phlebotomist, X-Ray technician or medical secretaries too.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, there are more than 28 colleges offering degrees in medical assisting. Bay Area Medical is a popular choice, as it provides graduates with three different certifications – Medical Assisting, Phlebotomy, and EKG Technology.
With 8.8 percent of the Bay Area Healthcare workforce set to retire over the next year, there will be a huge demand for graduates from medical assistant schools.
While this is just a snapshot of the California market for medical assistants, we can accurately presume that this segment is indicative of the whole country.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms that medical assisting will be among the fastest growing careers from 2008 to 2018. They forecast that, nationwide, the field will add more than 163,900 employees to see a 34 percent increase.
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