The American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living issued a report last week which showed that the long-term care industry is facing its worst job loss ever, and has not showed any kind of recovery like other healthcare sectors.
Industry employment in the nursing home sector has fallen by 14%, a loss of 221,000 jobs, while assisted living employment fell by 8%, a loss of 38,000 jobs during the pandemic.
Initially, hospitals saw a huge drop in employment, caused by the sharp reduction in elective surgeries. But it has mostly recovered, and total employment sits at just 1.6% below pre-pandemic levels. Even though that means hospitals are down 86,000 jobs, in March 2020 there were 5,236,000 people employed in hospitals compared with 1,582,000 in nursing homes.
Home health, with a similar number of employees (1,524,000) as nursing homes, is currently down just 1.2%. Only physician offices and outpatient care are at employment levels slightly above where they were in March 2020.
The long-term care industry needs to get the word out that their communities are safe once again for employees, and wages are going to have to rise, permanently.
