Connecticut Health Care Workforce Assessment

“During the current economic downturn, health care has been among the few industries to maintain its overall levels of employment, even increasing employment in some places and fields. At the same time, health care reform has opened to question many future projections for the health care workforce. Other major factors driving change, including technology, new reimbursement practices, and other factors, combine to make this a vital time to examine Connecticut’s rapidly changing workforce environment in health care—and to formulate recommendations for responding to emerging conditions.... [The complexity of workforce data poses a challenge to this response.] The many sources of health care workforce information are not coordinated in a way that supports complete analyses or shared understanding and strategy development. The departments of Labor, Higher Education, and Public Health, as well as other public and private institutions, maintain data systems that are integrated to some extent but not adequately. Standardization and quality control issues affect the interoperability of data systems for frequent comprehensive analyses. New sources of information, like real-time labor market information, are not capitalized upon to gain new insights, cross check assumptions, or monitor rapid change" (p.v-vi). (Abstractor: Author)

“While health workforce shortages have diminished, employment in the sector will continue to grow in response to several long-term drivers of labor demand, particularly Connecticut’s aging patient population… the state will be further pressed to keep the supply of health workers on pace because of the aging worker population, the outmigration of young adults, and flat or declining student achievement in the long-term pipeline. As a result, certain staple occupations… will remain crucial to nurture as overall demand continues expanding” (p.60). “Connecticut possesses many valuable resources and initiatives for health care education and training. The state has a large number of strong institutions, and recent efforts have laid a foundation for shared planning and action… these institutions have yet to adequately coordinate their workforce preparation strategies. The major sectors of the state’s health care industry face some shared workforce challenges that call for collaborative action” (p.61). (Abstractor: Author)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2011
• Author(s): Holm, Robert; Quimby, Steve; Dorrer, John
• Organizational Author(s): Jobs for the Future
• Funding Source: Connecticut Office of Workforce Competitiveness, Connecticut Employment and Training Commission
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies