The Amazing Debbie Nance!

Careers 

by Debbie Nance

We’ve talked a bit on this blog about writing like a writer. Maybe you’ve wondered what that means.

I found an interesting website with scholarship info on various jobs and careers and looked up Authors, Writers and Editors.  According to the website, http://www.studentscholarships.org/professions/585/employed/authors_writers_and_editors.php, there are approximately 281,300 people employed as Authors, Writers, and Editors in the United States.

I didn’t see a year for the stat so I don’t know how current it is. But, I think it is interesting nonetheless, and worth repeating, 281,300 people employed as authors, writers and editors. The website states further:

“Authors, writers and editors produce a wide variety of written materials in an increasing number of ways. They develop content using any number of multimedia formats that can be read, listened to, or viewed onscreen. Although many people write as part of their primary job, or on online chats or blogs, only writers and editors who are paid to primarily write or edit are included in this occupation.

“Given the job environment today, Authors, Writers, and Editors can consider themselves quite lucky, as only 4.4% are currently unemployed.

“In addition, over the next 10 years Authors, Writers, and Editors will be one of the fastest growing occupations. They should experience a 12.8% rate of growth during this time period.

“In respect to starting your own business, Authors, Writers, and Editors are more likely to be operating their own business than working for someone else. Currently, 65.9% of the employment base enjoys the self-employed lifestyle.”

Out of curiosity and for sake of comparison, I randomly chose another profession and googled:  How many dentists are there in the United States?

According to the American Dental Association http://www.ada.org/1444.aspx, as of 2009, there were 186,084 professionally active dentists (dentists using their dental degree in some fashion), and 170,694 active private practitioners in the U.S. (Note that the latter number is included in the former.) Also, the dental classes of 2012 had 5,199 predoctoral graduates. So extrapolate that out and there are probably about 211,000 dentists in the United States. Not that far off from the number of authors, writers, editors.

So then I googled:  How many teachers are there in the United States?

According to the U.S. Department of Education, https://nces.ed.gov/‎, a projected 3.7 million full-time-equivalent (FTE) elementary and secondary school teachers were engaged in classroom instruction in fall 2012. This number has risen 7 percent since 2002. The 2012 projected number of FTE teachers includes 3.3 million public school teachers and 0.4 million private school teachers.

So, do you think we have too many dentists or teachers or authors, writers, editors in the United States? I think there is room for all of us. And, by the way, which would you rather be a dentist, a teacher, or a writer?