European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 26, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Needed More physical therapists by Mike Embry associated press Diane Slaughter of Lexington ky., does t worry about making career  physical therapist at the University of Kentucky s sports Medicine Center she can go virtually anywhere in the United states and find work in her profession. Because of the availability of jobs i have the flexibility to move said Slaughter whose husband Phil is also a physical therapist. That s a real big  it also Points to a growing shortage of physical therapists. While there were an estimated 61,000 physical therapists in 1987, the Bureau of labor statistics projects an 87 percent increase in jobs or another 53,000, will be available by the year 2000, ranking behind paralegal personnel and medical assistants As the fastest growing occupations. There Are about 3,900 new physical therapists each year but figured with an annual loss of 1,451 through attrition the annual net gain will be just 2,449, according to the american physical therapy association in Alexandria a. And the organization calculates that there will be an annual deficit of 1,351 physical therapists from the number needed to fulfil increasing demands leading into the 21st Century. The average number of physical therapists per 10,000 population increased from 2.29 in 1983 to 3.59 in 1987, according to the Anta. It s not enough. The Kentucky Hospital association noting the demand gave $35,000 each to the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky in june for expansion of physical therapy programs. The University of Kentucky s classes will expand from 32 to 48 students while the University of Louisville s will increase from 20 to 32. There s been a longstanding shortage of physical therapists in All areas of the state said Michael k. Rush Kha vice president for member services. But there is no shortage on the number of applicants to the state s physical therapy programs. We get 200 applications each year said Nancy Urbscheit director of the University of Louisville s physical therapy program. Not All of them qualify and that number is reduced to 90 with the interview  she said some of the qualities looked for in applicants Are compassion intelligence problem solving ability and maturity. The same situation applies at the University of Kentucky said Tom Robinson Dean of the College of Allied health professions. We just take the Best qualified students he said. They have very High Grade Point averages score very High on examinations and rate High on interviews. It is very competitive he added. We turn Down a lot of qualified students that i feel could do the  nationally there were 17,000 applicants for 3,800 academic positions in 1985-86, according to the Anta. Among the problems in expanding academic programs according to Urbscheit and Robinson Are hiring qualified faculty and finding clinical locations for training. And Urbscheit added Academia often can t compete with what people earn As  average starting salaries for physical therapists Are $20,000 to $25,000, according to the Anta. Physical therapy has branched out to shortage of physical therapists in the . Allows them to pick and choose jobs. Many areas in recent years including sports Medicine clinics rehabilitation centers nursing Homes schools and private practice. And physical therapists work with a variety of patients ranging from weekend athletes to stroke victims to amputees. It s a wonderful career said Peri Kennedy Helton director of physical therapy at Frazier rehabilitation Center in Louisville. I love the interaction with other health professionals. Physical therapy is entering almost every aspect of Medicine. From paediatrics to geriatrics there s a lot of  jobs waiting to be filled in . By b. Drummond Ayres or. New York times a new nursing Home that cannot Ope because it cannot find enough nurses. Bank that must employ retired people to keep All its Teller windows open. A telecommunications company whose newspaper advertisement for technicians goes unanswered. These Are but three scattered examples of what researchers found in a new Survey of today s Washington metropolitan area Economy one of the hottest in the country so hot that it is adding jobs faster than people to fill them. Like a handful of other major metropolitan areas in the United states among them new York Boston and san Francisco the Washington metropolitan area finds itself in the bittersweet position of having a labor shortage in Many Fields. Its unemployment rate has dropped to nearly 2.5 per cent with Many jobs going begging not just jobs in the rapidly expanding service Field that is soaking up workers everywhere in the country. The metropolitan area s unemployment rate is less than half the rate elsewhere across the country. At that level according to the report most of the unemployed tend to be people who Are switching from one Job to another not looking for a Job. What makes the situation All the More remarkable in the nation s capital is that jobs there pay better than almost anywhere else because of the Washington area s mix of government diplomatic financial military and technological activity. By All Odds Washington should have a labor surplus. Instead it has fretting personnel managers want and sections that grow thicker and thicker and More and More windows displaying help wanted signs. The metropolitan area is booming so fast that one of every five of the jobs that now exist was created Over the past five years. This condition has sent Many employers on a desperate search for workers says the new jobs Survey conducted by the greater Washington research Center a business sponsored study group. It is undoubtedly giving a Good Many employers sleepless  most of the jobs added lately have been in the private sector As growth in Federal government jobs has levelled off under president Reagan. In fact Only one area Job in five is now a government Job As against one in three a Quarter of a Century ago. But the presence of the Federal government Here has proved to be an Ever More powerful Magnet for National and International business and political interests. At the same time government purchasing and contracting have increased helping to fuel the area s Boom in information military scientific and other technology. The area is rapidly becoming recognized As a competitor with such leaders As Silicon Valley and Boston s route 128," the research Center study states. The study was unable to determine just How Many jobs Are now going begging. What it found instead was that Job growth in the metropolitan area Over recent years has soaked up not Only All new workers moving in but has also taken up just about All the Slack in the rest of the labor Force from mothers and retirees returning to work to outlying residents willing to commute 75 Miles or More we Are running out of the Reserve that kept us from feeling a labor crunch until recently the study states. Twenty years ago it notes less than half of adult women in the area were working while today 70 percent Are working the highest level of participation in the country. But even though there is no Slack in the Washington labor Force there is no sign that businesses in the metropolitan area plan to curtail growth or that other businesses Are shying away. What is More even if there is a recession some growth might continue As past recessions have had much less Impact than in most places. At the rate jobs Are being created i figure that by the end of the Century Washington will have 210,00 More jobs than workers if we Don t find some More labor resources said George Grier author of the new research Center study. Page 16 the stars and stripes Friday August 26,1988