How are new grads doing in the job market?

[hawaiiguy]

Any new grads on here? How is the job market for new OT grads? Just wondering what I should expect.

Thanks

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[Kelcleigh]

http://www.careercast.com/jobs-rated/2012-ranking-200-jobs-best-worst

Just gotta do a little research to see we as OT's are gonna be just fine! You may not get your ideal job right out of the gate, but unlike a lot of professions, we should be able to start making money and paying off our loans after graduation. Hope the link helps!

 

[hawaiiguy]

Uhhh, I would take that article with a huge grain of salt. Anyone who has spent any time on the pharmacy or optometry forums should know by now what a load of crock those best jobs lists are. They basically use the BLS reports, and a lot of the folks on the pharmacy forums knows what a load of baloney they are.

 

[babycheeks]

United States Department of Labor: http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Healthcare/Occupational-therapists.htm


Occupational Therapy Compensation Report : http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aota/2010salarysurvey/index.php#/0 ( you would have to get a copy of it by joining AOTA as a student its $75 per year. It is compiled from over 10,000 practitioners, in the most comprehensive salary report ever done for the profession. The report includes trends and comparative data covering salaries and benefits as well as overall trends in the occupational therapy workforce.)

 

[hawaiiguy]

United States Department of Labor: http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Healthcare/Occupational-therapists.htm


Occupational Therapy Compensation Report : http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aota/2010salarysurvey/index.php#/0 ( you would have to get a copy of it by joining AOTA as a student its $75 per year. It is compiled from over 10,000 practitioners, in the most comprehensive salary report ever done for the profession. The report includes trends and comparative data covering salaries and benefits as well as overall trends in the occupational therapy workforce.)

Hey babycheeks, thanks for the compensation report. Although, what I'm really wondering is about job placement rates for new grads. The reason why I'm wondering is because I'm coming over from the pharmacy and optometry boards where everyone is talking about market saturation of pharmacists and optometrists. I've heard about this happening back in the day for pharmacy, and now it has finally come to fruition. Think about this: there are almost 3 times as many practicing pharmacists than OTR's. They have only begun ramping up their programs. 10 years ago, there were only 60 pharmacy programs in the U.S. They have now doubled that to 130 programs. Mostly because of that, the overall pharmacist job market is completely saturated. I've read that a bunch of them have left the field. My concern is that there are only 100k OT's practicing in the U.S. but there are 150 schools. Compared to pharmacy, I would expect OT to be extremely saturated. However, it's hard to say since I don't trust the BLS data, obviously, given that they say there is a lot of demand for pharmacists in the U.S. when there clearly is not, and I haven't heard from any new grad OT's on job placements.

 

[hawaiiguy]

I just thought of something else. If there is 3 times as many pharmacists as OT's, one should expect to see three times as many job openings for pharmacists as OT jobs in a normal job market. However, in a saturated market, one should see less. That would be another indirect measure of OT job saturation: by using the converse. So, if there are three times or more jobs available for pharmacists than OT's, then one can surmise that the OT job market is saturated.

 

[babycheeks]

I don't have any info on job placement rates for new grads, the compensation report shows trends too not just salary they do have a section on students maybe you could find it there, not sure.

 

[TBMSM09]

Good thread. Good info and forum. I lurk around the indeed OT forums at times and it's quite a stir over there, so sticking around here and aota.org OT Connections is more helpful, but overall can get a general idea anyway.

I'd imagine things would be balanced out in time and since OT requires a masters degree and are in school longer (than say someone with an associate's) - as well as other professions that go to school longer, would be "balanced" out, right? Educational standards, people leaving the field at that time, etc.

 

[brisa2004]

I don't know how much help I'll be as I can only give my own personal experience. I went to St. Kate's in St. Paul, MN and after graduating in 2009, I was able to find full-time work two months later. Everyone in my class found work within 3-6 months. The OT world is smaller especially here in MN and I had a classmate who already was offered a job at the company so that was a way to get my foot in the door. Right now, I work full-time (about 32 hours/week) and have 2 on-call jobs as my husband is an unemployed chiropractor (tell me about saturated job market in his field!!!) to help pay the bills. While in school, I used to search the job ads and would get depressed thinking that there was only a few listed in the newspaper but I've found that a lot of jobs are by word of mouth or they are posted directly on the company's website. Working on-call is another way to get into a company too and there are plenty of places looking for people to fill in. My on-call jobs are constantly begging for us to come in and do evals over the weekend as Medicare's treatment week has gone to 7 days/week. I would expect the demand to go up as many companies are going to treating patients 6-7 days a week and need extra coverage for staffing. Hope that helps.

 

[NewOTR]

Hi,

I recently just graduated from OT school. The job market in Texas is looking pretty good. I emailed recruiters (contacts I got from my school or networking), and I would get a callback within a day (sometimes even an hour). There are more jobs in SNFs than any other settings but I applied for only inpatient rehabs and acute hospitals in my area.

Majority of my classmates landed a job within 2 months of graduation.