PHI Releases New Annual Data on the U.S. Direct Care Workforce

• By: Nadine Grosso
• On: 09/16/2021 12:15:53
• In: Announcements/Reminders

Last week, PHI released a report - Direct Care Workers in the United States: Key Facts - that provides a new annual snapshot on the direct care workforce, including its demographics, occupational roles, job quality challenges, and projected job openings. The report includes detailed overviews of three segments of this workforce: home care workers, residential care aides, and nursing assistants in nursing homes.
 
From 2019 to 2029, the nursing assistant workforce will have 561,800 total job openings according to the report. This figure includes 272,000 job openings caused by workers moving into other occupations and 299,900 job openings due to workers exiting the labor force altogether. Thirty-five percent of all nursing home job openings will be nursing assistant positions. 
 
The report also includes that the residential care aide workforce, which is the largest occupational group within residential care by far, is projected to add 157,100 new jobs from 2019 to 2029.
 
MHCA anticipates that these findings will inform State and Association workforce development efforts. You can read the full report here. 

Staff contact: ngrosso@mehca.org