Information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics
So you’ve decided to be an ultrasound technician major, enrolling in a program at a community college, state university, technical college, career school, or teaching hospital in one of their diagnostic ultrasound programs. You’ve probably heard that ultrasound is a growing field with a lot of demand, but exactly how hot is it? Let’s take a look at a few specifics as provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a sub-bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor and discuss some of their implications for you as a sonography student. This is a federal department, so we can be fairly sure their statistics are reasonably accurate and reflect national trends.
How Many Ultrasound Techs Get Jobs Yearly?
The latest statistics available from the bureau are from two years ago. Not quite up to date, but that should give us at least a good idea. The bureau reports that around 50,300 were held by medical sonographers in 2008. It breaks this down into two basic employer types – hospitals and other types of medical institutions such as doctor practices, outpatient care facilities, and diagnostic labs. Reportedly, 59% of these jobs were at hospitals and the remaining 41% were in the other category.
It’s encouraging to see that the split is fairly even here. What this means for you as an ultrasound technician major is that not only are there plenty of jobs, but you don’t have to think in terms of only working at one type of medical facility. If large, fast paced work is what you enjoy, you can aim for a hospital job. And if you’d rather something more focused and moderately paced, you can seek work at a doctor’s office, small clinic, or private laboratory.
Are these Job Prospects Expected to Continue to Grow?
The answer to this, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is yes. It projects that starting from the above 2008 figure, that the number of songrapher jobs will increase to 59,500 by 2018. That’s a jump of nearly 10,000. If you look at this as a yearly average it becomes close 1000 new jobs opening up a year. Combine that with sonographers leaving positions and so on, and you can see that each year there should be thousands of new positions needing to be filled. So if sonography is what you’re interested in, you’ve made a good choice by deciding to be an ultrasound technician major from a job demand perspective. The industry needs more of you.
What kind of Salary Can a Sonographer Expect?
The 2008 figures from the bureau have the middle 50% of sonographers making between $52,570 and $73,680. But check out the same current median 50% salary as reported by Salary.com – between $58,876 and $70,312. Assuming the Salary.com figures are accurate, the lower range has gone up and the upper range has gone down slightly. This is a good sign actually, because it means the average salaries are ascending and that the pay scale is becoming more standardized while still being high. You don’t have as big a spread between the highest and lowest paid, which can only show that, overall, sonographers are in higher demand, are considered professionals meriting higher pay, and are being more well integrated into the work force. This is just what we’d expect from the increasing demand curve the Bureau of Labor Statistics refers to.
So it’s good news all around if you’re an ultrasound technician major. You can expect a nice job market and a hefty wage in the coming years, even if you’re just starting out. Whether you want to study the brain and nervous system, image hearts and abdomens, assist eye doctors, check for good fetal development and tell parents whether to expect a boy or a girl, or track the speed of blood flow through the veins with Doppler ultrasound, the jobs are there. Study hard and try to grab one of those few thousand new jobs that are even now as you read this probably becoming available.