KCAL Insurance Agency
The Fallout is Hammering Healthcare Industry
A lousy economy has caught up with healthcare, an industry once considered virtually immune to downturns. The sector, which employs about 1 in 10 Californians, has stalled at a time when healthcare employment continues to grow nationally.
Gone are the days when nurses received fat signing bonuses. Fewer hospitals are recruiting healthcare workers from abroad, as they did in the early part of the decade. Some are cutting workers' hours, reducing their benefits and even laying off staff. The ailment: the Golden State's 12.4% unemployment rate, third-highest in the nation. So many Californians have lost their jobs — and their company-sponsored health insurance — that many are going without treatment. In addition, employers increasingly are shifting healthcare costs to their employees in the form of higher deductibles and out-of-pocket costs. That's leading many workers to skimp on doctor's visits and postpone elective surgeries. Meanwhile, California legislators are slashing some public healthcare spending in the face of yawning deficits. It all adds up to an uncharacteristically tough job market for medical workers.
To be sure, healthcare remains one of the healthiest segments of the U.S. economy. Nearly 14 million Americans are employed in the sector. While employment growth has slowed in a sluggish economy, the field continues to add jobs: 318,000 nationwide since October 2009. Meanwhile, medical employment has barely budged in California, where the healthcare sector gained just 9,000 jobs over the same period. Trends that are crimping healthcare employment growth nationwide are squeezing California harder. Nearly 1 in 4 California residents lacked health insurance last year, according to a UCLA study, compared with about 1 in 6 nationwide. And California employers that provide health insurance benefits for their workers have seen their costs rise 8.4% this year, outpacing increases for businesses nationally, according to a recent survey by benefits consulting firm Mercer. That gives employers here more incentive to cut health benefits entirely or shift to cheaper plans with less coverage, leading workers to use less care. Lower demand is translating into fewer new healthcare jobs.
The fallout is hammering all manner of medical-related jobs, including support staff, nurses and technicians. The California Institute for Nursing and Health Care cited the "unexpected difficulty of new RNs finding employment" as one of California's "most pressing workforce issues" in a recent study. The institute surveyed new graduates and found that only 57% were working as registered nurses in mid-2010. About 1 in 5 of those graduates who said they were not working in nursing said they had been trying to find employment in the field for more than a year.
Source: LA Times