When expanding this analysis to the broader health care workforce, the challenge becomes even more significant. This finding implies West Virginia health care employers will have to look to out-of-state sources for their hiring needs.
This analysis presents a consistent and concerning picture of West Virginia’ s health care workforce trajectory. It highlights a growing mismatch between the state’ s ability to produce health care professionals and the projected demand for these workers in the coming years.
Health care employment in West Virginia has grown substantially and is poised to remain a leading driver of job growth. However, the state’ s capacity to produce a sufficient number of qualified health care professionals, particularly in critical fields such as nursing, is falling short. Most notably, the gap between projected demand and the number of graduates produced by West Virginia’ s colleges and universities is expected to widen significantly, with a
Total Health Care Degrees Produced
FIGURE 2 Total Health Care Workforce Supply and Demand Analysis
Number of degrees awarded and hiring demand
2,000 1,800
Total Needed Hiring
1,600 1,400 1,200 1,000 800 600 400 200
0
2015 2016 2017 2018
In-State Degree Production Must Increase 235 % to Fill Gap
2019 2020 2021
Source: West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission;
West Virginia University Medicine; Vandalia Health; authors’ calculations
2022 2023 2024
Shortage: 8,884 Jobs
2025 2026 2027 2028 2029
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