from the editor healthcarehygienemagazine
Healthcare Wages Not Keeping Pace With Other Industries
new analysis from Indiana University ,
A the nonprofit Rand Corp . and the University of Michigan highlights the changes in the U . S . healthcare workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic and found that the average wages for U . S . healthcare workers rose less than wages in other industries during 2020 and the first six months of 2021 . This is in spite of the healthcare workforce shouldering the heavy burden of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic .
Researchers said their findings , published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Health Forum , are critical for planning and responding to ongoing and future public health crises .
“ While there has been extensive media coverage of the considerable employment declines in the healthcare sector , evidence from complete national employment and wages was scarce ,” said professor Kosali Simon , the Herman B Wells Endowed Professor in the O ’ Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IU Bloomington and one of study ’ s co-authors . “ These findings provide a data-driven picture of employment levels by various healthcare settings and can help guide decision-making not only around the current healthcare shortage but also during a future crisis .”
The research team used industry- and county-level data from the U . S . Bureau of Labor Statistics covering 95 percent of all U . S . jobs during 2020 and the first six months of 2021 to examine what happened to wages and the number of jobs at physician offices , hospitals , skilled nursing facilities , home healthcare facilities , dental offices and other healthcare settings .
They examined whether the number of healthcare jobs in a county is reflected
in how hard that county was hit by COVID-19 cases , and how much of a healthcare shortage they faced even before the pandemic .
The study found that healthcare employment levels declined in mid-2020 to 21.1 million jobs , a 5.2 percent decrease from 22.2 million in 2019 . Employment declines varied across healthcare organization types during the first year of the pandemic , with the largest decline taking place among dental offices ( 10 percent ) and skilled nursing facilities ( 8.4 percent ).
Additionally , wages in the healthcare sector increased at a lower rate relative to the national average across all sectors . Compared to 2019 , there was a 5 percent increase in healthcare sector wages versus 6.7 percent for the national average in 2020 , and 1.5 percent increase in healthcare versus 6.9 percent nationally in 2021 .
While employment levels of most healthcare sectors rebounded to pre- COVID levels in 2021 , the researchers found there was a 13.6 percent decline in employment at skilled nursing facilities compared to 2019 .
Thuy Nguyen , research assistant professor at the University of Michigan and senior author , said the study found substantial employment declines among nursing homes , which were more serious in areas with high COVID-19 burden . But she said those findings were expected , as these employees may experience greater frustration and burnout associated with the pandemic . Until next month , bust those bugs !
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