In January of 2022 we wrote, The Labor Battle Intensifies: Healthcare vs Retail where we outlined the crisis in healthcare labor shortages competing against big retail chains for the same labor. How are things going a year later? Well things aren’t better, they are worse.
In Massachusetts:
Health care leaders are trying to find new ways to retain and recruit employees as the workforce shortage, which started in 2020, worsens nationwide. There are no clear answers to the labor shortage, and in Massachusetts, health care professionals say it’s going to take more than one solution to figure it out.
In state hospitals alone, around 19,000 acute care positions are unfilled and more than 70% of the average hospital dollar is going toward labor costs — “wages, benefits and purchased services” — according to an October report from the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association. Travel labor expenses — for out-of-state employees that keep hospitals running — are projected to reach $1 billion, the association predicts.
Recorder.com
In Hawaii:
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Oahu Home Healthcare said it will shut down this month, leaving just eight at-home healthcare providers to serve Oahu’s growing senior population.
“Many of these facilities have waiting lists. Now, with this facility shutting down, how are those people going to be placed?” said Kealii Lopez, AARP state director.
“Those people now need to be placed with other facilities, which are already overflowing.”
The company said its closure is due to increased costs brought on by Medicaid reimbursement changes and the statewide labor shortage.
Hawaii News Now.com
The problem isn’t just limited to healthcare, the aerospace industry has 2.1 million shortage of production workers and engineers. From Leeham News:
Some aerospace suppliers say the industry is dealing with a shortage of production workers, as well as engineers. Airbus, Boeing and other manufacturers, including engine companies, complain they can’t get to desired production rates because of, in part, a labor shortage.
It’s part of a broader phenomenon across all manufacturing, with one industry group saying there’s an immediate need for 2.1 million factory workers right now.
Leeham News.com
So where are all the workers? What’ going on? Well, It’s The Boomers Stupid! Each year for the past few years, the Social Security administration has been reporting new enrollees of about 5.5 million people added to social security. A large percentage of the 5.5 million are baby boomers hitting retirement age of 62 or 65 but a growing percentage of those are people going on disability.
With 5.5 million people leaving the labor force and signing up for social security and a growing number of people deciding to expatriate themselves and head overseas to a new foreign country.
The United Nations and World Bank collect data on foreign-born populations from local censuses and surveys all over the world, and use them to estimate migration patterns between more than 200 countries and localities. By their estimate, the population of American-born people abroad sat around 2.8 million as of 2020.
The Washington Post
It is important to keep in mind that we are at the start of the great boomer retirement. In 2030, all baby boomers will be at 65+ which means currently, millions have not yet retired but they will over the next 7 years so we are just starting this journey and it’s already painful.
Ultimately, we expect more migrations out of the US to lower cost countries that can actually provide the health care and other services needed but that’s a post for another day.
Stay tuned, stay profitable and stay solvent…