Demand for Health Care Workers Will Remain High Through Recession
Health care is expected to remain a bright spot in the current recessionary job market, according to several key indicators. This does not seem to mean, however, everything is rosy in health care overall today.
Recession has done some serious damage to the industry, causing patients to put off treatments leading to layoffs of staff in some locations and creating credit crunches that have forced some facilities to close their doors, according to a recent U.S. News report.
Still, the key phrase among workforce experts is these trends seem to be "short term." Some aspects of the industry have been improving, especially in residential services, ambulatory health, home health and physician offices.
California reports indicate that state's population will grow by 10.2 million in the next 20 years and the number of its residents age 65 and older will more than double. Projections note that state needs 1.2 million health care workers now and will need 2 million by 2030.
The California study focused on an increased demand for allied health care workers (think respiratory therapists, polysomnographers, lab techs and dental hygienists) rather than nurses, however.
States with small populations still will find increased needs for health care workers.
On a national level, government projections say overall health care employment will grow by a whopping 22 percent through 2016. On a positive note, the industry added more than a half million jobs since the recession started.
Last year's nursing and health care worker shortages have dissipated pretty much because of the recession with medically qualified workers spun off from jobs in other industries returning to the fold, especially some of the workers in the older ranks. Potentially that trend holds some threats, because these same workers can back out of the employment picture if other aspects of the job market improve.
One positive force in the marketplace remains aging baby boomers. They will continue to grow in number, placing greater demands on the nation's health care services, creating what Brad Kemp, who headed the California study, called a "recession resistant" population.
Currently the U.S. population stands at about 305 million. That number is expected to grow by nearly 70 million (just under 30 percent) within the next 20 years, creating a far larger patient population than we now have.
Obviously more hands will be needed to provide for the demand for care.