Emergency management and disaster recovery prove to become growing sectors in the recession prone U.S. economy. According to FEMA data and private sector sources the emergency management industry will employ 1.6 mln people and spend $65 Bln on wages alone by year 2012. There are many emergency services involved in handling an emergency. The planning phase starts at formulating contingency plans, where the agencies decide on how they will act in a given emergency. Response phase includes execution of contingency plans with some elements of improvisation, due to inevitable gaps between planning and reality. Recovery after the incident and mitigation involve assistance to the people to overcome mental and physical traumas as well as minimizing damage. All these efforts require an army of professionals in “standby” mode.
| Industry | Projected Number of employees, 2012 | Average Hourly Wage | Average Annual Wage | Annual Job Market, $mln |
| Emergency Management Specialists | 14,040 | $23.65 | $49,180 | $690 |
| Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics | 238,449 | $13.02 | $27,080 | $6,457 |
| Environmental science and protection technicians, including health | 37,738 | $18.11 | $37,660 | $1,421 |
| Fire Fighters | 340,402 | $18.66 | $38,810 | $13,211 |
| Hazardous materials removal workers | 53,760 | $17.47 | $36,330 | $1,953 |
| Occupational health and safety specialists and technicians | 46,808 | $23.85 | $49,610 | $2,322 |
| Police and Sheriff’s Patrol Officers | 771,581 | $21.90 | $45,560 | $35,153 |
| Police, Fire, and Ambulance Dispatchers | 103,920 | $14.36 | $29,860 | $3,103 |
| Private Sector Contingency Planning Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Specialists |
12,000 | $30.00 | $72,000 | $864 |
| Total | 1,618,698 | $65,175 |
While spending billions on disaster management is a heavy burden even for healthy economies, lessons of Louisiana, Thailand and, more recently, Myanmar demonstrate that lack of preparedness costs even more dearly.
