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Demand for phyiscal, occupational, speech therapists growing

Jacksonville Business Journal - May 11, 2007
by Dave Strupp
Staff Writer

JACKSONVILLE -- As the population grows more abundant and older, new graduates in physical and occupational therapy and speech language pathology are finding jobs quicker.

The U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics ranks physical therapist as one of the 20 fastest growing occupations, as it expects their ranks to increase almost 40 percent from 155,000 in 2004 to 211,000 in 2014. In 2005, median annual incomes were $64,240 for physical therapists, $63,160 for occupational therapists and $51,960 for speech-language pathologists.

"It's a great time to alert young folks," said Clint Drawdy, president and co-founder of Jacksonville-based Medical Methods, a health care staffing company. "It's a fantastic long-term move and I think it's encouraging for anyone who just started a [therapist program in school]."

New graduates often work for staffing agencies because of the flexibility and freedom they afford, Drawdy said. "They can get all that experience and then choose where they want to go."

Hospitals use many of the nation's occupational and physical therapists to help acutely ill patients, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They also need occupational therapists to staff outpatient rehabilitation programs.

"We have a lot of our employers looking for new graduates," Drawdy said. "The demand is crazy right now for new graduates in the therapy industry."

Medical Methods provides staffing for Baptist Health, Brooks Rehabilitation and Aegis Therapies Inc., Drawdy said. The Northeast Florida market for therapists is lucrative because it has more than 30 significant medical facilities.

"There's a real growing demand for physical therapy here," said Rusty Smith, chairman of the department of athletic training and physical therapy at the University of North Florida's Brooks College of Health.

UNF's physical therapy department graduates 36 students each year, and recently added a doctoral program for physical therapy, which will begin in the fall.

Demand is great for therapists in Northeast Florida, but the area is also supplying more workers in the industry compared with the rest of the country, said Jason Howard, vice president of outpatient operations for Brooks Rehabilitation.

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