The health care field is now growing at an exponential rate, and it is predicted to continue to do so well into the next decade and beyond. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics records that there were 146 million jobs in 2004; of that number, the health care industry provided 13.5 million jobs. Wage and salary jobs accounted for 13.1 million of these jobs, while 411,000 were self-employed workers.