Did you know that the Home Care & Hospice industry is one of the 10 fastest growing employers in the United States right now? Not only that, but the homecare industry is projected to add over a million workers between now and 2026. That is more than any other occupation in the U.S. Conversely, while home care is a growth industry, the population that has traditionally filled the positions of homecare workers is projected to decline significantly over the next two decades.
What this means is that the homecare industry will need to recruit differently and outside of its traditional pool of employees- women age 20 to 64- in order to keep up with the pace of demand. The National Association for Home Care & Hospice has recently put together some very interesting statistics on workforce trends in the home care industry. If you own or manage a home care business you should be paying close attention to these stats and planning accordingly.
- Over 2.1 million homecare workers provide health care and personal assistance to the elderly and disabled. That number is expected to grow rapidly as almost 88 million people will be 65 or older by 2050
- About 325,000 homecare workers are employed directly by patients/consumers as independent providers. However, the true size of this population is probably larger, as those numbers do not include home care workers employed through the “gray market.”
- Nearly 90 percent of homecare workers are women, with a median age of 47 years. People of color make up 60 percent of homecare workers.
- More than two-thirds of the homecare workforce is employed by for-profit companies, and most of these jobs are funded by government payments from programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Almost two-thirds of the home health care services industry’s $77.6 billion annual revenue in 2016 came from such publicly-funded programs.
These are interesting stats to keep in mind for both existing, well established home care businesses and for newer startups alike. Like in any industry, as the health care industry grows, business models must adapt to the ever-changing workforce trends that occur in order to stay relevant and be successful.
