Are Public Health Jobs in Demand?

Keeping communities healthy and safe takes a lot of work—and a lot of public health workers. But who are these workers, and is now a good time to join them?

Answering those questions requires understanding what public health is. Many think of it as analogous to health departments and similar government agencies, but that’s only partly correct. The public health field also includes professionals in the nonprofit, private, and academic sectors. If your job deals with protecting and improving the health and well-being of communities, you work in public health.

Public health is such an extensive field that estimates vary for the number of people employed as public health professionals. A 2024 report by the Consortium for Workforce Research in Public Health puts the number of state and local public health workers alone at nearly 240,000.¹

Where Public Health Professionals Work

Many different organizations employ public health professionals. You can find people working in public health at:

Fields of Public Health

Public health encompasses many different fields. These include:

• Behavioral and social: Focused on studying and improving the life choices and social conditions that affect health.
• Biostatistics: Focused on collecting and analyzing health data to uncover health trends within populations.
• Community health: Focused on using the wealth of public health knowledge to reach vulnerable communities and supply the resources/education they need to improve health and safety.
• Epidemiology: Focused on monitoring and understanding the spread of diseases.
• Emergency management: Focused on preparing for and responding to the public health threats created by natural and manmade disasters.
• Environmental health: Focused on understanding and addressing environmental factors that affect people’s health.
• Food safety: Focused on ensuring food supplies are safe and accessible.
• Global health: Focused on understanding and addressing health threats that cross national borders.
• Health disparities: Focused on understanding and addressing health disparities between populations, typically focusing on the racial and/or economic disparities that lead to poorer health.
• Health policy: Focused on advocating for and implementing laws and regulations designed to improve health and/or safety.
• Health promotion: Focused on communicating with communities about health threats and ways to live healthier.
• Maternal and child health: Focused on improving maternal care, infant care, and the care of young children.
• Mental health: Focused on addressing mental health problems through awareness and intervention.
• Occupational health: Focused on ensuring workplaces are safe and accessible.
• Substance abuse: Focused on reducing substance abuse and helping communities overcome its effects.

Types of Public Health Careers

Every field of public health has people working in a variety of roles. Some of these roles require years of training and/or advanced degrees, while many others are available to entry-level professionals or can be reached after a short time in the field. Jobs in public health include:²

While the demand for each job varies, data suggests the overall need for public health workers is on the rise. For example, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of jobs for epidemiologists is expected to increase by 19% between 2023 and 2033, a rate that’s much faster than average.³ Jobs for health educators are projected to increase by 7% over the same span,⁴ while jobs for medical and health services managers are expected to increase by 29%.⁵

How to Start a Public Health Career

If you’re looking for opportunities in public health, consider earning a BS in Public Health. Through a bachelor’s in public health program, you can gain the knowledge and skills you need to prepare for a public health career. Best of all, you can earn your BS in Public Health degree online.

An online public health program allows you to earn your degree from wherever you are right now. And you don’t need to completely rearrange your schedule. An online public health degree program gives you the power to take your classes at whatever time of day works best for you—a convenience that makes it possible to earn a public health degree while you continue to work full time.

With so many fields and roles, public health offers many career opportunities. And thanks to online education, you can earn a BS in Public Health and gain the skills to help you land an in-demand public health job.

Walden University is an accredited institution offering a BS in Public Health degree program online. Expand your career options and earn your degree using a convenient, flexible format that fits your busy life.
 

¹Source: https://cworph.umn.edu/sites/cworph.umn.edu/files/2024-08/enumeration-2024.pdf 
²Career options may require additional experience, training, or other factors beyond the successful completion of a degree program.
³www.bls.gov/ooh/life-physical-and-social-science/epidemiologists.htm 
⁴Source: www.bls.gov/ooh/community-and-social-service/health-educators.htm 
⁵Source: www.bls.gov/ooh/management/medical-and-health-services-managers.htm

Walden University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (www.hlcommission.org), an institutional accreditation agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.