HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY – STA·TUS QUO
Demand for healthcare services has unobtrusively risen over a period of time now and this growth will continue into the future. The demand for services translates into ever-increasing demand for healthcare workers – including nurses, physicians, allied health professionals, technologists and coders, leaders, and support personnel. Like any other industry, it’s an upward trend in the long term, for the healthcare sector employment. However, the healthcare industry does not seem to be prepared enough to cater to this increasing workforce demand. Increasing demand has been accompanied by a growing number of unfilled jobs, a serious challenge that can be perceived in the federal labor data and on the digital job boards of hospitals and health systems, where hundreds and even thousands of open jobs are posted. Both growth trends and growth challenges will continue into 2018 and beyond.
WHERE IS THE FUTURE?
The amount of money that is projected to be spent on healthcare in the future, is cogent indicator of rising demand for healthcare services and healthcare workers. More than doubling from 2010 to 2025, when it reaches beyond $55 trillion, expenditures include payments for all healthcare costs, including pharmaceuticals, equipment and technology. However, labor constitutes the single greatest cost for most healthcare organisations.
This growing trend, has translated into a flurry of jobs openings in the healthcare sector. Even in 2017, despite the continued debate over the future of healthcare policy, the healthcare industry has added an average of 24,000 jobs each month. That’s vigorous growth in any industry. Employment growth is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. While healthcare job growth will ebb and flow in the future, the trajectory of growth has been consistently upward.
HOW CAN YOU FIT IN THE DEMAND SUPPLY GAP?
While job openings have ascended steadily over the years, the job hires remained relatively static. Traditionally openings have outpaced job hires in healthcare and the gap between openings and hires has been widening rapidly since 2014. This swelling gap – which represents a cumulative number of unfilled jobs – shows the challenges that healthcare providers face in finding enough practitioners and support personnel to fill today’s job openings. Other data reveals that the problem of high demand for healthcare workers, and low supply of those workers, may continue well into the future. The statistics on the projected future job openings provides the healthcare providers the crucial insight on the demand for healthcare services and healthcare professionals. These are the jobs that healthcare providers will need to fill in the future.
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