Employment Conditions Improve for PTs and PTAs Physical therapists are experiencing the best employment conditions since enactment of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, and employment conditions have improved for physical therapist assistants since spring 2001, according to two recent surveys conducted by APTA.
"I am pleased to report that the recent survey indicates a marked improvement in the job market for physical therapists," APTA President Ben F Massey, Jr, PT, said. "The 1.1% of unemployed physical therapists represents the lowest rate reported since the baseline was established in the fall of 1998, at 1.2%. It is encouraging to see a decreasing unemployment rate in the physical therapy profession, especially in an uncertain economy."
The third Physical Therapist Assistant Employment Survey shows an unemployment rate of 3.9%, down from 4.2% in spring 2001 and 6.5% in fall 2000. However, 15.2% of the 435 unemployed physical therapist assistants indicated that they were unemployed, in part, because their salaries had been reduced to an unacceptable level.
"We are encouraged to see that the job outlook continues to improve," Massey said. "We will continue to work to improve the employment market for physical therapist assistants."
Also based on survey results, members of APTA are less likely to experience employment turbulence than are their physical therapist and physical therapist assistant counterparts who are not members of the Association.
APTA's Physical Therapy Employment Survey is the final in a series of seven surveys of physical therapist members and nonmembers and three surveys of physical therapist assistant members and nonmembers. Executive summaries of the surveys are available on APTA's Web site at www.apta.org.
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