Careers in the health sciences cluster involve helping people and animals with the medical care they need to get or stay healthy. Nearly all of the healthcare occupations in the Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) are assigned to this cluster.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) counted about 12.2 million jobs in the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) occupations that are assigned to the health sciences cluster. Median annual wages for these occupations ranged from $21,020 for home health aides to more than $187,200 (the highest median annual wage published by BLS) for occupations such as surgeons.

Occupations in the health sciences cluster typically require many different levels of education and training, with specific designations ranging from less than a high school diploma and short-term on-the-job training for home health aides to a doctoral or professional degree and an internship or residency for occupations such as pediatricians.

BLS projects most of the job openings in occupations assigned to the health sciences cluster to be in the therapeutic services pathway. The occupation projected to have many more job openings than any other in the cluster is registered nurses.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Life sciences are often defined as any branch of science that deals with living organisms, their life processes, and their interrelationships.

The Kansas City region is at the heart of the KC Animal Health Corridor, which stretches from Manhattan, Kansas, to Columbia, Missouri. Companies in this corridor account for more than half of total worldwide animal health, diagnostics and pet food sales.

Within the Kansas City Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), the life sciences sector has an annual economic impact of $9.2 billion.

The life sciences economic sector includes companies engaged in research and development, manufacturing and bioinformatics.

Source: KC Workforce