Healthcare Hiring: Some jobs are in demand while others suffer

Healthcare, the largest industry in the United States, employs 20 million people and is looking better for those seeking jobs, according to LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index. There is strong demand for everything from anesthesiologists to workforce planners,” reported George Anders, senior editor at large at LinkedIn .

However, he pointed out that the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic has split the U.S. healthcare sector into two distinct markets, with high demand for doctors, nurses and other front-line workers (9.6 percent increase in hiring) but not so much for healthcare managerial and support job (7 percent decrease in hiring).  The U.S. medical system boosted staffing levels for anything related to pandemic care and cut back in many other areas. While demand has stayed high for frontline workers, non-frontline hiring has quite rebounded. 

While vaccinations have made the outlook brighter for COVID-19 front, there is still high demand for  frontline care. Outpatient revenue has declined.

Anders also reported that the pharmaceutical industry is seeing that consumers have gotten accustomed to online ordering. The may mean layoffs for in-field sales and marketing teams, such as the 500 jobs recently cut by Amgen. Anders added that people in healthcare are generally more optimistic than they were a year ago.

People in the medical device sector have the highest confidence levels, according to a LinkedIn survey. . Mental health care workers are less confident, and hospital workers are the least confident; the latter  are the only group that still lags behind the all-industry average.

Anders pointed out that hospitals employ both front-line nurses and other clinicians and billing managers, facilities operators and the full mix of legal, accounting and other specialists who do not see patients. Surging hiring rates may occur in areas in which on-the-job stress is high, meaning that only 37 percent of healthcare providers in hospitals cite “enjoying their work” as a motivator for staying on the job. That may mean that “staff confidence levels can be volatile,” Anders said. He believes that “the combined information from LinkedIn’s Economic Graph Data, plus the Workforce Confidence Index, provides a fuller sense of health care at a crossroads. The overall sector is likely to remain an important engine of U.S. economic growth, if only because an aging population will keep needing more care…Hiring prospects -- and on-the-job confidence -- are likely to vary substantially. There’s work to be done everywhere from the operating room to the supply room. But each opportunity will be its own story.”

Another take on healthcare career trends came from MyHealthTalent.com.  According to that website, “The global pandemic of 2020 has changed the face of healthcare as we know it. Healthcare systems have been pushed to and beyond capacity.  When, where, and how medical professionals treat patients was one of the biggest stress points. On-the-fly adjustments and processes that were completely reimagined over the course of the past year will continue to exist for the time being and, perhaps, forever.   Successful healthcare careers need to take these changes into account to ensure long-term viability.”

In terms of trends for 2021, the site said that telemedicine will continue to be important. While telemedicine and telehealth have been around for a while, the pandemic accelerated growth significantly within a year. Telemedicine has been used for both simple medical issues and severe conditions. Telehealth is still growing and will continue grow until after COVID-19 is an issue. Demand for telemedicine means that the technology available has to improve, creating a need for sophisticated medical personnel.

Another projected trend is non-medical industries being more aware of healthcare. Every business has to develop measures to ensure the health of their employees. They may need to change their processes and operations, such as employee health screenings and reducing stresses that have come from working during a pandemic. They may also need to add third-party vendors to provide medical services or install in-house medical facilities and services.

Another trend mentioned by MyHealthTalent.com is “retooling frontline workers needed to contain Covid-19 and guard against future pandemics.” According to the site, frontline healthcare workers have gotten hit hard during this pandemic, creating a need for more personnel next year and the year afterward.  New medical workers might be hired at a faster pace than in recent years to fill the vacuum.  Even with more and more of the population vaccinated, there will still be more patients who need care.  That means that on-boarding processes that require a great deal of time will have to be completely changed to expedite the handling of patient care.

While these healthcare trends are a direct result of the pandemic, there are many other ways that the medical industry has been affected in both the short and long term.  That suggests that healthcare will continue to evolve as the pandemic continues and change the way it is conducted.  Still, the world has learned a great deal from this experience and will continue to learn from it and adapt to it.  The article concluded, “The things that the medical industry, non-medical industries, and private citizens have done and adapted to will serve all of us in the months to come.  In the post-pandemic world, we’ll be better equipped to handle any future pandemics from an infrastructure, resource, and mental health sense.”

Because the pandemic has lasted for more than a year, its influence on healthcare and related industries has been significant. Thus, healthcare can be changing the way it operates permanently in some cases and changing the kinds of personnel needed to manage it. It is likely to become even higher technologically and require people who can make the technology work for them and their patients. The needs of patients who have been impacted by shutdowns have changed, and the healthcare needs of employees in other industries have to be considered in the overall equation. While some healthcare operations will go back to normal, that may not happen in the foreseeable future.