Younger Generation Ranks Favorite Employers

You might think today’s plugged-in millennials would favor jobs in the technology industry above all others, but a recent national career survey shows that is not the case.

Health care employers dominated the National Society of High School Scholars’ eighth annual career survey, released this week. Eight of the top 25 most-preferred employers for millennials were in the health care industry.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the national research and treatment facility headquartered in Tennessee, ranked No. 3. The write-in answer of “local hospital” and two other medical employers also made the top 10.

Tech companies and federal employers came next, with five of each type of employer making the top 25.

Google (No. 1), Apple and Microsoft made the top 10, for example. So did the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency. Even the National Security Agency, which has been criticized in recent years for its mass surveillance of private citizens, came in at No. 19.

The top-ranked employers of 2015 are:

1. Google
2. Walt Disney Co.
3. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
4. Apple
5. Federal Bureau of Investigation
6. Local hospital
7. Microsoft
8. Central Intelligence Agency
9. Health Care Service
10. Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
11. Amazon.com
12. Sony
13. DreamWorks Animation SKG
14. Mayo Clinic
15. Abercrombie & Fitch
16. The New York Times
17. Starbucks Coffee
18. U.S. Department of State
19. National Security Agency
20. Hershey’s
21. U.S. Air Force
22. Blue Cross and Blue Shield
23. UnitedHealth Group
24. Intel
25. Atlantic Health System

The NSHSS career survey is based on responses primarily from high school juniors and seniors, but also from high school freshmen and sophomores, college students and post-college young professionals. The respondents ranged in age from 15 to 29.

A large percentage of them — 40 percent — expect to work in health-related fields.

NSHSS President James W. Lewis tells Forbes magazine that millennials have a passion for helping others.

In addition, national employment trends suggest the availability of health care jobs will continue to increase.

Thomas Wickizer, a professor and chair of Health Service Management and Policy at Ohio State University’s College of Public Health, told HealthLeaders Media last month that the new federal health care law known as Obamacare has played a key role in creating health care jobs:

“This has really been a sustained increase in employment, month-over-month.

I think in part it is the effect of the PPACA (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) that has brought more people in to the [healthcare] system through expanded insurance coverage.”

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