Research has shown that during times when most other professions are recessing, the field of nursing is hiring. Employment data reveals that during times when most job sectors are in a downturn, the employment of nurses grows by about 5.3% on average and increased by a much higher 8.6% during the current recession.

Hiring of hospital nurses increased by an astounding 18% in 2008.  These numbers may seem to be leveling off temporarily, but this is still cause to be optimistic for nurses and future nurses. It means that of any industry, nursing and other health care careers have the highest probability of bouncing back the quickest. One of the reasons for the current temporary slowdown in the hiring of nurses is that a big piece of the workforce who were poised to retire before the recession, were forced to keep working.

Many retirement age nurses have seen their nest eggs dry up or their spouses unemployed and therefore made the choice to keep working to make ends meet and attempt to rebuild their savings as much as possible. However, this cannot last forever and eventually these nurses will have to retire and their positions will need to be filled.

A Vanderbilt School of Nursing study showed that the current recession has put a temporary end to a long term nursing shortage that has strained hospitals across the country for the last 11 years. The same study predicts the imminent arrival of a more serious nursing shortage than the country has ever seen, in the next decade, especially since the predominant age demographic of working nurses is over age 50.

All of this data is good news for those considering a career in nursing, that despite many mixed reports due to the current downturn, nursing is one of the true recession proof careers out there and it always will be.