Enumerating the State and Local Public Health Workforce During the COVID-19 Response

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Workforce Studies
• Health Services Research

Background:

• The nonfederal governmental public health workforce is crucial for population health.
• Accurate enumeration is vital for understanding workforce capacity and needs.
• Previous data collection methods have limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To map the current landscape of the state and local public health workforce.
• To identify effective methods for future workforce enumerations.
• To highlight disparities in public health workforce density.

Main Methods:

• Triangulated data from the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) Profile 2022 and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) Profile 2022.
• Utilized 2021 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS) data.
• Analyzed demographic distributions across U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regions.

Main Results:

• A total of 239,000 staff were employed in state and local health departments in 2022, a 2% increase since 2012.
• Sixteen states experienced staff losses relative to population growth, with 6 in the Southeast.
• The public health workforce landscape shows significant density unevenness.

Conclusions:

• The uneven distribution of the public health workforce reflects persistent underinvestment.
• Current enumeration processes face challenges and data limitations.
• Enhanced federal enumeration strategies are needed to capture governmental public health at all levels.