Shortage of Aging Services Providers

One of the most important industries in the US is related to senior citizens. The senior living industry has several diverse branches that vary between home services, nursing, social work, permanent assistance (24 hours a day-7 days a week), food preparation, transportation service and other care professions in general.

Aside from being a gigantic aid to senior citizens and their vital needs, it is also an essential sector for the local economy as it constantly stimulates the American workforce and offers thousands of jobs annually.

However, despite being a key industry for the American market and for people who need these services, the senior sector has experienced a growing workforce shortage in recent years, putting at risk the stability of both service providers, the elderly who need it and the health system in general, including its economy and the availability of skilled human resources.

In fact, LeadingAge, an organization representing multiple agencies and more than 5,000 (non-profit) senior service providers, recently released official figures related to senior industry workforce shortages and stated that there is a growing demand for skilled workers to provide high quality services to senior citizens.

Let’s look at some important facts:

• According to LeadingAge, the senior population is growing rapidly, which could lead to exponential growth in demand for aging services providers. In fact, according to estimated figures, the senior population will grow by 43 million between 2018 and 2060.
• The country is entering a retirement stage, that is, the retirement-age population is disproportionately increased compared to the working-age population (figures similar to the 2020 National Census results).
  Thanks to this situation, LeadingAge states that, by 2035, there will be 76% more senior citizens who will need professional assistance of some kind.
• By 2030, the US will have a shortage of 2.5 million senior service providers if it does not act as soon as possible to fix the current situation.

Senior industry supports immigration reform

According to a recent report from McKnight’s Senior Living, “The long-term care industry long has looked to immigrants as a potential solution to workforce shortages”. This essential sector has always supported comprehensive immigration reform as a way to reestablish economic equilibrium and fill skilled workforce gaps.

However, after five months since Democratic President Joe Biden took office, the senior living industry still expects his administration to continue to restructure current immigration policies in order to attract talent from abroad and offer high-quality service to retired citizens who need it most and seniors in general.

It is worth mentioning that, apart from other minor and almost irrelevant problems, the current biggest and most important challenge of this industry is to be able to reduce workforce shortages and, therefore, immigration is undoubtedly the best alternative to solve this inconvenient effectively and efficiently.

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