Health Care Jobs Grow in New York

Center for Health Workforce Studies finds continued job growth, particularly in home health care and ambulatory care

Between 2000 and 2014, employment in home health care in New York more than doubled, while employment in ambulatory care grew by about one third.

ALBANY, N.Y. (March 2, 2017) --The health care employment sector continues to grow statewide, especially in home health care and ambulatory care, according to the Center for Health Workforce Studies (CHWS) recent report: The Health Care Workforce in New York, 2015-2016: Trends in the Supply and Demand for Health Workers.

Between 2000 and 2014, employment in home health care more than doubled (136%) while employment in ambulatory care grew by 30 percent. Overall, health care employment in New York increased by 24 percent during the same time period.

“Despite job growth in the health sector,” said Robert Martiniano, senior program manager at CHWS, “many patients lack access to services in some areas of the state where providers report unmet demand for workers. Workforce recruitment and retention can be problematic for primary care providers and behavioral health providers, resulting in delays in obtaining needed services for patients.”

Other findings from the report include:

• Health care employment accounts for about 12 percent of total employment in the state, and continues to grow faster than employment in all other sectors.
• Many of the fastest growing occupations in the state are in the health sector, including home health aides, personal care aides, nurse practitioners (NPs), and physician assistants (PAs).
• In 2016, hospitals across the state reported the most difficulty recruiting experienced registered nurses (RNs), NPs, PAs, and clinical laboratory technologists.
• Nursing homes in the state reported the most difficulty recruiting and retaining RNs, licensed practical nurses (LPNs), and certified nurse aides in 2016.
• In 2016, the state’s home health agencies reported the greatest difficulty recruiting speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, experienced RNs, and respiratory therapists. Additionally, agencies downstate reported difficulty recruiting home health aides, homemakers, and personal care aides while agencies in many upstate regions reporting difficulty retaining individuals in those same occupations.
• Federally qualified health centers in the state reported the most difficulty recruiting primary care physicians, obstetricians/gynecologists, NPs, dentists, and most categories of behavioral health workers in 2016.
• Between 2014 and 2024, the New York State Department of Labor projects growing demand for direct care workers, including home health aides and personal care aides as well as RNs, social workers, and LPNs.

CHWS Director Jean Moore said, “A key goal of this report is to assist New York’s stakeholders to more effectively target health workforce education, job training and provider incentive resources; to guide health workforce policies, including decisions about the capacity of health professions education programs; and to inform current and prospective students about health care employment prospects and opportunities.”

The full report can be found on the CHWS website.

About the Center for Health Workforce Studies
Established in 1996, CHWS is an academic research organization, based at the School of Public Health, University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY). The mission of CHWS is to provide timely, accurate data and conduct policy relevant research about the health workforce. The research conducted by CHWS supports and promotes health workforce planning and policymaking at local, regional, state, and national levels. Today, CHWS has established itself as a national leader in the field of health workforce studies.

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