Career as a Dispensing Optician

According to a recent report from Prevent Blindness America, more than 150 million people in the United States wear eyeglasses or contact lenses to correct refractive errors in the eye. A study from the American Association of Retired Persons found that an almost 30 percent of males and 40 percent of females in the 18-to-35-year-old age range wear some form of corrective lenses. This statistic that only increases with age, with 60 percent of men and two-thirds of women over age 55 requiring spectacles or contacts. Without the hard work of dedicated opticians, these people would be unable to see correctly, making opticianry a great career choice for those who want to help others as well as people seeking a high level of job security. You might think that the growing field of laser corrective eye surgery would result in a decrease in the business opportunities for those who work in eyewear. Not so, says one optician interviewed for this report. Many of the doctors who do LASIK surgery have stopped taking in traditional eye patients, he says. Not everyone is a candidate for this type of surgery, nor does everyone want it because of the price or the procedures involved. The result has actually been a rise in the patient-to-doctor ratio, which means despite the advances in laser surgery, we have actually seen our business increase pretty steadily. Dispensing opticians currently hold almost 65,000 jobs, and the number of employees in this field is expected grow during the next decade. The demand for corrective eyewear will increase due to the aging of the baby boom generation and the rising popularity of corrective lenses as a fashion statement. Middle age is a time when many individuals use corrective lenses for the first time, and elderly persons generally require more vision care than others, a government analyst reasons. Fashion, too, influences demand. Frames come in a growing variety of styles and colors, encouraging people to buy more than one pair. Statistics seem to confirm that employment opportunities within the opticianry field have indeed been growing. According to information obtained from the California Projections of Employment, there were 6,950 people statewide working as dispensing opticians in 1993. Today, there are almost 8,5000. Further, the report, which was released through the state s Labor Market Information Division, claims that there may be more than 2,000 openings within the field. The Health Career Centers website at www.mshealthcareers.com has this to say about the future outlook of job openings in the field of opticianry: Employment opportunities for opticians should be very good over the next decade. There is an expected 10 to 20 percent increase in the number of new job openings through the year 2012. The demand will continue to increase because of the growing middle-aged and elderly population in this country. As the baby boom generation grows older, more vision care specialists will be needed to keep up with demand created by this surge. Employment opportunities will also become available as people within the profession retire or leave the workplace for other reasons. "