Considering Recent Trends in Healthcare Labor Markets in Educational Program Planning in Allied Health

Recent trends in wages and employment should be considered to help inform recruitment and expansion planning for educational programs related to the future healthcare workforce. We present a relatively straightforward method for assessing a broad set of health labor market trends from 2010 to 2014 based on the number employed and wage rates across all healthcare-related occupational categories available from the Occupational Employment Statistics data. To focus more on trends within the healthcare sector, we used the relative wages and employment of the occupations compared to medical doctors. Of 19 broad occupational categories, pharmacists, physician assistants, and occupational and physical therapists have been experiencing a growth in demand relative to medical doctors as evidenced by a growth in relative wages and employment. There is also clear evidence of a reduction in the relative supply of allied health workers. Specifically, across all allied healthcare workers, there was an increase in relative wages (2.28%) and a decline in relative employment (-3.64%). Occupations with increases in wages and number employed are likely to be good areas for programs to expand both in terms of the future economic welfare of their graduates and to help meet market demand.