With the economy wobbling, layoffs rising and prospects a bit murky, it is not the best time to leave a job. Most workers don't assume they can swiftly swap their paycheck for another at a better, more convenient position.

But Roxanne Beamon is a nurse.

Renee' Hannans Henry/AJC (ENLARGE)

Nurse manager Roxanne Beamon (left) goes over the day's assignments with Ruby Bowles at DeKalb Medical Hillandale. Nurses are in short supply, despite high pay.

Renee' Hannans Henry/AJC (ENLARGE)

Nurse Latonia Burks look over charts for doctors' orders in labor and delivery at DeKalb Medical Hillandale.

Looking for a shorter commute, she saw that DeKalb Medical was hiring for its Hillandale hospital. "I saw this opening, and I jumped on it," she said.

Beamon was hired — and unsurprised. After more than two decades in nursing, being in demand is something she is used to.

"I have never had trouble finding a job," she said. "Never."

No matter how dismal the economy, there are some sectors — especially education, government and some software jobs — where hiring has churned steadily on. And for many years, health care has been one of them, too. During the past year, about 367,000 health care jobs were added to the nation's payrolls — 17 percent of all U.S. job growth.

For jobs and better-than-average pay, nursing, in particular, has been the best place to look of late. The bad news for employers is that the surge of nursing jobs outpaces the supply of qualified workers.

In mid-January, DeKalb Medical held a job fair, hoping to fill about 170 full- and part-time openings for registered nurses, medical technicians, therapists and other medical workers. Nearly 1,000 people showed up looking for a job. Few had health care experience. And not enough of them were nurses.

"Nursing is always in demand," said Sue Dunlap, employment manager for DeKalb Medical. "We are always looking for registered nurses. We never run out of openings for them."

Boomers drive market

A lot of people must enter the field or the shortage will get much worse, warns the American Hospital Association. Right now, the nation faces a 118,000-nursing shortfall, according to the AHA. In a dozen years, the AHA predicts, the shortage will swell to 340,000.

The gap is fed from both sides of the supply-demand divide.

Demand will intensify as the ranks of the elderly swell with baby boomers. And many of those retirees are leaving jobs in nursing.

Other factors also add to demand — the advances of technology, a continually swelling population.

All those effects are at work in metro Atlanta.

For example, Atlanta's population has virtually exploded, with much of the influx represented by young adults. That in turn has sparked a burst of growth in the numbers of infants and other kids, said Linda Matzigkeit, senior vice president Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.

The work force at Children's, with three hospitals and 15 satellite locations, has been surging 7 percent a year. "Atlanta is one of the fastest-growing pediatric populations. I think we will continue to grow. It is amazing."

Now, Children's has about 7,000 employees, Matzigkeit said. "Over the next 10 years, I think it will grow to be 10,000 to 12,000 employees."

According to the most recent estimate by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are slightly more than 2.5 million nurses. By 2016, that will surge 24 percent.

The pace of that growth is more than twice as fast as for the overall work force, the BLS said.

"There have been shortages for 15 years," said Govind Hariharan, chair of the economics department at Kennesaw State's Coles College of Business. "In every projection I have come across, there is continued growth into the foreseeable future."

In the overall economy, hiring has slowed and layoffs are up. Yet health care runs to rules of its own.

Marietta-based WellStar Health System has 11,000 employees in five hospitals and a host of doctors' offices. It is worried about ever-more-severe shortages as the population ages, but there is a need right now, said Mark Rowe, director of work force development.

"The demand is there," he said. "There are lots of openings and lots of growth."

High pay: inquire within

At the Hillandale hospital, for example, there are two openings in labor and delivery for nurses with at least two years of experience. The jobs pay about $25 an hour — about $10 an hour more than the median pay in Atlanta.

Better-than-average pay and a surfeit of jobs is a nice combination — and it's not new, said Kelly Chasteen, 45, associate chief of nursing at Wesley Woods.

Chasteen has been a nurse for 24 years, taking extended leaves several times, including when she had children. Each time she came back, she had no problem finding a position, even with a new employer.

"The last time I left a job, I ended one job on a Friday and started the next job Monday," she said.

In many sectors, hot hiring and higher pay lead to an influx of new candidates. After a few years of boom, demand fades and suddenly there is a glut.

Just the opposite has happened in nursing. Even when the market was not as strong, what was the worst that happened?

"There were years when you couldn't get a day shift position as a new hire," Chasteen said.

She supervises nearly 200 people, but Chasteen is having trouble filling a slot for a nurse manager on the 3 to 11 p.m. shift in medical rehab. That job requires experience and a willingness to work evenings, but the compensation is $75,000 — almost double the average pay in metro Atlanta.

It's been open for two years.

Nurses are paid far less generously than physicians and other health care specialists. For instance, DeKalb Medical is currently searching for a nuclear medical technologist, a job that pays about $190,000.

Therapists — speech, physical and occupational — are in demand as well, said Candace Berk, president of MDI Medical, a Norcross health care staffing agency.

The physical therapists she places are paid between $70,000 and $90,000 a year, she said. Yet hospitals can't fill openings. "There are more people needing care and fewer people providing it."

Nursing remains the largest single category in health care. Of 10,000 jobs at Emory Healthcare, about 2,800 are nurses, while 1,200 are physicians, said Peg Bloomquist, chief human resource officer at Emory Healthcare. Nurses' salaries at Emory range from about $44,000 to about $60,000 — depending on how much extra they make for overtime.

Meeting in a kind of economic intersection are the growth in nursing jobs, higher-than-average pay and a chronic shortage.

Children's Healthcare of Atlanta has 100 openings for nurses, many in emergency and critical care — especially on night shifts. The hospital pays a nurse right out of school about $45,000 a year, Matzigkeit said.

A nurse with a decade of experience can expect about $62,000. "I don't think people know that. You can make some good money in nursing. I wish more people would consider it."