Unless you live on the moon or in a cave deep under the earth’s crust, the healthcare conversation is one you probably can’t avoid. Whether it’s on mainstream media, your local news or even by your workplace coffee spot, everyone seems to be talking about the state of U.S. healthcare. It’s a challenging and confusing time for everyone.

But if you happen to be one of our country’s many healthcare providers, the term “challenging” doesn’t even begin to describe the status of the industry right now. It truly is a “Perfect Storm” of confluence.

Demand for healthcare services is at an all-time high and will only go up. In fact, healthcare is projected to grow by 30 percent through 2020, more than twice as fast as the general economy. It is projected to add an astounding 4.2 million jobs during that time period, as well, which will represent 13 percent of the total U.S. labor force (19 million out of 143 million workers). If estimates are correct, that means 1 out of every 9 new jobs created will be healthcare related. And when we factor in healthcare employee turnover in addition to new job openings, the number of required healthcare workers grows to 7.5 million.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in health care increased by 42,000 in January alone. Within the industry, job gains occurred in ambulatory health care services (+22,000) and hospitals (+19,000). Health care has added 368,000 jobs over the past year.

Where is the rest of that growth? Numbers show that nearly half of the growth in healthcare can be seen in two sectors—home health, and services for the elderly and disabled. This rapidly growing sector represents 1 out of every 5 new healthcare jobs according to the Center for Health Workforce Studies. Meanwhile, nursing jobs continue to see the largest numerical increase in demand year over year.

The cause of this aggressive growth? An aging population. Today, one-third of the workforce is age 50 or older. According to Heidcamp, Mabe and DeGraaf (2012), that number will grow to 115 million by 2020. By 2050, 19.6 million American workers will be 65 or older.

And if history is any indication (and it almost always is), as people get older, they’re going to need more healthcare services.

That’s quite a large population that will soon be in need of a significant amount of healthcare. In fact, people over the age of 65 require 3 times as many hospital stays as those under 65. When people get to age 75, that increases to 4 times as many stays.[2]

High demand for services, wage compression, an aging workforce, and a high employee attrition rate along with significant hiring needs, truly is a recipe for many sleepless nights for healthcare providers.

At Yoh, our recruitment process outsourcing teams and healthcare recruiting experts have been following these trends for years and have been guiding our healthcare client through the storm with solutions that keep them ahead of the talent demand.

[1] Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Projections 2010-2020

[2] www.beckershospitalreview.com/printissuew.html

This blog was written by Kim Davis. Kim Davis serves as Vice President, Sales for Yoh RPO. He is responsible for new business development as well as acts as an internal strategic consultant to RPO operations. Kim is a serial entrepreneur starting multiple talent acquisition/RPO businesses and is a recognized pioneer in the RPO vertical.