The healthcare staffing industry has seen a steady increase through 2011 and 2012 after several months of slow demand.
The healthcare staffing industry is comprised of healthcare professionals that provide services on a contracted basis to institutional healthcare providers. The providers can be acute care facilities, long-term care facilities, home heath care, or any other means of healthcare delivery.
What determines the Demand of the Healthcare Staffing Industry?
One of the means of determining overall demand in the healthcare staffing industry is quantifying the number of healthcare jobs advertised across the nation. The fewest number of ads on line for healthcare workers within the last ten years occurred in May of 2009. This number has steadily increased since that low point. The end of 2011 and the first of 2012 has seen a growth in ads that is triple the low point in 2009.
The future for the healthcare staffing industry will be driven by an increased need for healthcare providers, coupled with the availability of healthcare providers to be placed. The extremely large demographic of baby boomers that are in their sixties will continue to push the demand upward in the healthcare staffing industry. Fortunately the recognition of an insufficient supply of healthcare professionals has prompted a significant increase in the numbers of young people entering a healthcare career curriculum.
Another promising statistic in the industry shows that 9 of the 10 largest metropolitan areas showed an increase in recruiting activity from January of 2011 to January of 2012. The average increase in numbers of ads run averaged over a 30% increase.
With both demand for service increasing, and the number of healthcare graduates increasing, the outlook for the healthcare staffing industry is very promising.