Frontline healthcare workers are growing faster (32.6%) than other healthcare occupations (28.3%) and far more rapidly than all other occupations in the United States (14.8%), yet these 6.5 million workers don’t command the attention of research studies in the same way that physicians, registered nurses, and healthcare executives do. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has released a new publication, Workers Who Care: A Graphical Profile of the Frontline Health and Health Care Workforce, a 248-page resource that is the first comprehensive source of state and national data on the occupational growth outlook, per capita employment, demographic information, and wage outlook and trends for 32 frontline occupations, including medical assistant, health educator, pharmacy technician, recreational therapist, and home health aide.
Despite frontline workers’ vital and growing responsibilities, most earn under $40,000 a year and lack credentials, access to training, and opportunities for advancement. A growing and aging population will intensify the need for frontline health workers, according to the report, and with proper training and support, incumbent workers could fill many of the better-paying, more senior positions, such as supervisory roles. The report offers recommendations for healthcare employers to support training and advancement for frontline workers. Download the report.
