VER. 2: SPRING 2021

SUPPLY AND DEMANDOF HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALSIN WEST VIRGINIA

ii

Supply and Demand of Health Care Professionals in West Virginia

is published by: Bureau of Business and Economic Research

John Chambers College of Business and Economics West Virginia University

(304) 293-7831 bebureau@mail.wvu.edu

bber.wvu.edu

WRITTEN BY

Christiadi, PhD Research Associate

Eric Bowen, PhD Research Assistant Professor

John Deskins, PhD Director

Version 2 revised May 5, 2021. This report was commissioned by the West Virginia Legislature. The opinions herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission or the West Virginia University Board of Governors.

© Copyright 2021 WVU Research Corporation

iii

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables ............................................................................................................................. iv

1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 1

1.1 Industrial Breakdown ................................................................................................................ 2

1.2 Health Care Occupations ........................................................................................................... 4

2 Demand and Supply Comparison by Health Care Occupations in West Virginia ................................ 6

2.1 Demand ..................................................................................................................................... 6

2.2 Supply ........................................................................................................................................ 8

3 Analysis .............................................................................................................................................. 13

4 Recommendations ............................................................................................................................ 14

iv

List of Figures and Tables

Figure 1: Employment in the Health Care and Social Services Industry ....................................................... 1 Figure 2: Employment in Health Care Industries, West Virginia, 2019 ......................................................... 3 Figure 3: Average Annual Earnings, Health Care Jobs, 2019 ........................................................................ 3 Figure 4: 10 Largest Health Care Professions in West Virginia, 2020 (thousands of jobs) ........................... 4 Figure 5: Median Hourly Earnings of the 10 Largest Health Care Professions in West Virginia, 2020 ......... 5 Table 1: Health Care Profession Demand Projections .................................................................................. 7 Table 2: Degree and Certificate Completions (2019-2020 academic year) ................................................ 10

1

1 Introduction

The health care and social services industry has been growing strongly in both the US and West Virginia over the last decade. Between 2010 and 2019, national employment in the industry grew 2.3 percent per year, far outpacing the growth in overall employment of 1.7 percent. During the same period, West Virginia employment in this industry grew steadily at 0.8 percent per year. While this growth was slower than the nation, it is relatively strong in a state where the overall employment declined during the same period. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic that forced an economic lockdown in 2020, employment in the industry dropped significantly in the early part of the year just as these workers were in greater need to provide health care during the pandemic. The pandemic has revealed the necessity of ensuring a strong health care workforce in the state to care for ill patients.

Figure 1: Employment in the Health Care and Social Services Industry

After the pandemic, the need for health care services is expected to continue to grow strongly in US and West Virginia over the next few decades as the aging population leads to an increased need for health care. Accordingly, the demand for health care professionals is expected to grow as well. In addition, the impending retirements of experienced Baby Boomer health care professionals will impact available supply. West Virginia will likely have to compete with the neighboring states in recruiting new health care professionals. These trends may lead to a shortage of health care providers in the state. For that reason, it is important for the State of West Virginia to anticipate this increased demand by ensuring an adequate supply of health care professionals in the state.

90

100

110

120

130

West Virginia

United States

Source: Bureau of Labor StatisticsNote: Quarterly data

Index (2010 = 100, Thousands

2

The West Virginia Legislature commissioned this study in order to ascertain whether the state has the capability to provide a sufficient supply of health care workers to meet the projected demand in the industry. Unfortunately, due to insufficient data1 on the demand and supply of skilled health care workers, we are unable to answer this question with any degree of certainty. Instead, we present a forecast of job vacancies over the next decade along with data on students at the state’s colleges and universities who have completed degrees or certifications in medical-related fields of study. Because of the nature of these data, we are unable to match these two datasets together to provide a full picture of the demand and supply of medical workers in the state.

This study examines the supply and demand of health care workers at the state-level using only a specific subset of the data that can help explain the supply-demand condition of jobs in the health care industry. An additional report, titled “Health Professionals Data File,” contains not only the data used in this report, but also more detailed data associated with the health care industry in West Virginia on a state, regional, and county level.

1.1 Industrial Breakdown

We begin with a general discussion of health care jobs in West Virginia. As mentioned above, health care jobs have been growing steadily in the state over the last decade. Total employment in the health care sector in 2019 was approximately 101 thousand jobs, according to data from WorkForce West Virginia.

As shown in Figure 2, General Medical and Surgical Hospitals comprised the largest number of jobs in the sector, with nearly 40 thousand workers, which represents a little more than 39 percent of the total workforce in the sector. Physicians’ Offices were the second-largest industry group totaling almost 16 thousand jobs, or 16 percent of the total workforce, followed by Nursing Care Facilities with approximately 9 thousand workers, or nearly 10 percent of the workforce.

Physicians’ Offices had the highest average earnings in the health care sector, as shown in Figure 3. Workers in this industry group earned an average of $81 thousand annually,2 which was nearly $20 thousand more than the next highest earning industry group of General Medical and Surgical Hospitals, which had an average annual wage of $61 thousand. The lowest wages were in the Residential Intellectual and Developmental Disability, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse Facilities industry group. These workers earned an average of a little more than $26 thousand per year in 2019. Workers in the Continuing Care Retirement Communities and Assisted Living Facilities for the Elderly industry group also earned under $30 thousand per year on average in 2019.

1 Researchers for this study attempted to conduct a survey of health providers in West Virginia, but were unable to garner enough response to have a statistically valid sample. Instead, this study uses data from a number of publicly available and private sources, including EMSI, a privately held data broker.

2 This average is skewed by high salaries for physicians and does not reflect the typical pay for support staff.

3

Figure 2: Employment in Health Care Industries, West Virginia, 2019

Figure 3: Average Annual Earnings, Health Care Jobs, 2019

Gen. Med. & Surg. Hosp.; 39.7

Offc. of Physicians; 15.9

Nursing Care Fac.; 9.4

Home Health Care Svcs.; 6.9

Outpatient Care Centers; 5.6

Offc. of Other Health Prac.; 5.6

Res. Dis., Ment. Health, & Sub. Abuse

Fac.; 4.3

Offc. of …

Cont. Care Ret. Comm.; 3.1

Other Amb. Health Care Svcs.; 2.4

Other Res. Care Fac.; 1.2

Spec. Hosp.; 1.1Psych. and Sub.

Abuse Hosp.; 1.1Med. and Diag. Labs;

0.9

Source: WorkForce WVNote: Jobs are in thousands

26.4

29.3

30.5

34.9

35.1

38.1

41.3

41.7

44.4

45.4

51.3

52.3

60.8

81.1

0.0 20.0 40.0 60.0 80.0

Res. Dis., Ment. Health, & Sub. Abuse Fac.

Cont. Care Ret. Comm.

Other Res. Care Fac.

Home Health Care Svcs.

Nursing Care Fac.

Offc. of Other Health Prac.

Other Amb. Health Care Svcs.

Outpatient Care Centers

Psych. and Sub. Abuse Hosp.

Offc. of Dentists

Spec. Hosp.

Med. and Diag. Labs

Gen. Med. & Surg. Hosp.

Offc. of Physicians

Source: WorkForce WV

Average Annual Earnings (Thousand $)

4

1.2 Health Care Occupations

In this subsection, we provide a profile of health care professions in West Virginia, using the most recent data available from EMSI, a private data broker. The EMSI data identifies 46 health care professions in West Virginia. To simplify the discussion, in Figure 4 we show only the 10 largest health care professions, in terms of employment.3 These top-10 professions have 66,000 jobs total, accounting for more than 75 percent of total health care professions in the state.

Of these 10 professions, the registered nurse profession has the largest employment of 19.5 thousand, or more than 22 percent of all health care professions. The second largest profession is the personal care aide profession with 17.4 thousand jobs or nearly 20 percent, followed by nursing assistant profession with 7.8 thousand jobs or nearly 9 percent, and licensed practical/vocational nurse profession with nearly six thousand jobs or nearly 7 percent (Figure 4).

Figure 4: 10 Largest Health Care Professions in West Virginia, 2020 (thousands of jobs)

3 For more detailed information see the Health Care Professions Data File.

Registered Nurses; 19.5

Home Health & Personal Care

Aides; 17.4

Nursing Assistants; 7.8

Licensed Practical/Vocational

Nurses; 5.9

Medical Assistants; 3.3

Pharmacy Technicians; 3.1

Physicians, Exc. Family Medicine Physicians; 2.4

Medical Technologists and Technicians; 2.3

Emergency Medical Technicians &

Paramedics; 2.2

Pharmacists; 2.0

Source: EMSI

Total Health Care Professions:

87,329

5

Figure 5 shows median earnings for the top-10 health care professions in the state. Two highly skilled health care professions—physicians and pharmacists—lead the list. At 2.8 percent and 2.3 percent of the total health care employment, respectively, these professions comprise a relatively small share of total sector employment. At the same time, they are among the highest-paid health care professions, with median hourly earnings of $99 and $61, respectively.

In contrast, the second-largest profession, home health and personal care aide, has median hourly earnings of less than $10, the lowest earnings of all health care professions in the state. The largest health profession in the state—registered nurses—receives median hourly earnings of nearly $30, which is well above the state’s median hourly earnings across all health care industries of $24.60.

Figure 5: Median Hourly Earnings of the 10 Largest Health Care Professions in West Virginia, 2020

$9.81

$12.24

$13.42

$13.58

$14.04

$17.67

$18.25

$24.61

$29.54

$61.18

$99.04

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110

Home Health & Personal Care Aides

Nursing Assistants

Emergency Medical Technicians & Paramedics

Medical Assistants

Pharmacy Technicians

Licensed Practical/Vocational Nurses

Medical Technologists and Technicians

ALL HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONS

Registered Nurses

Pharmacists

Physicians, Exc. Pediatric/Fam. Medicine Physicians

Source: EMSIMedian Hourly Earnings

6

2 Demand and Supply Comparison by Health Care Occupations in West Virginia

Now we turn to a discussion of demand and potential supply of health care professionals within West Virginia. In subsection 2.1, we present estimates of health care occupational demand based on EMSI’s forecast of annual job openings in health care occupations from 2020 to 2030 within the state of West Virginia.4 In subsection 2.2, we present data on the potential supply of new health care workers based on the number of students who have completed certifications or degrees in medical-related fields of study from West Virginia colleges and universities.

Though we present both projected demand and potential supply of workers in the state, as mentioned above we are unable to combine these data and use them to examine, with any degree of certainty, whether the potential supply can meet demand. For this reason, we are unable to provide a full picture of the demand and supply of medical workers in the state. Some examples of problems with matching the two data sets are described in the Analysis section of this report.

2.1 Demand

The occupation data in EMSI’s projection is based on job categories defined by the Standard Occupational Classification system developed by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. These data combine workers into detailed occupations based on similar job responsibilities. EMSI then forecasts job vacancies over a 10-year period.

The number of job vacancies is estimated based on EMSI’s 2020 to 2030 occupational projections. To arrive at total openings, EMSI takes into account the expected rate of new hires, job separations, replacements, and turnover rate in each occupation, then projects the total number of job openings over 10 years. To calculate the expected annual job openings for each health care profession, we then divide the 10-year job opening figure by 10. These opening projections are shown in Table 1.

The largest category of job openings is expected to be in the Home Health and Personal Care Aides field, with more than three thousand workers needed each year over the next decade. Nearly 1,300 nurses are expected to be needed each year over this same period, followed by nearly one thousand nursing assistants. About 161 new medical doctors from all specialties—including Anesthesiologists; Family Medicine; General Internal Medicine; Obstetricians and Gynecologists; Pediatricians; Psychiatrists; Surgeons; and Other Physicians—will be required on an annual basis for the next decade.

4 EMSI is a third-party data broker, and thus the data should be interpreted with caution, as national brokers may not fully consider the nuances of the health care market within West Virginia.

7

Table 1: Health Care Profession Demand Projections

Description 2020 Jobs 2030 Jobs 2020

Separations

2020 Turnover

Rate

2020 Vacancies

Average Annual

Openings 2020-2030

Home Health and Personal Care Aides

17,380 21,162 11,539 66% 2,849 3,247

Registered Nurses 19,500 20,726 3,918 20% 1,230 1,255

Nursing Assistants 7,793 8,350 4,379 56% 895 983

Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses

5,935 6,298 2,336 39% 478 513

Medical Assistants 3,341 4,013 1,450 43% 425 479

Pharmacy Technicians 3,096 3,011 1,296 42% 246 259

Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors

1,628 1,979 724 44% 199 218

Medical Dosimetrists, Medical Records Specialists, and Health Technologists and Technicians, All Other

2,336 2,534 773 33% 206 214

Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics

2,235 2,469 859 38% 194 194

Psychiatric Aides 1,642 1,654 785 48% 182 194

Nurse Practitioners 1,241 1,792 252 20% 135 143

Child, Family, and School Social Workers

882 1,120 325 37% 107 121

Physical Therapist Assistants 740 912 404 55% 104 116

Physicians, All Other; and Ophthalmologists, Except Pediatric

2,423 2,675 263 11% 112 107

Radiologic Technologists and Technicians

1,657 1,744 319 19% 107 106

Pharmacists 2,012 1,889 444 22% 88 89

Physician Assistants 905 1,151 191 21% 81 87

Healthcare Social Workers 685 796 271 40% 75 82

Respiratory Therapists 1,134 1,320 180 16% 81 82

Physical Therapists 1,272 1,463 253 20% 83 80

Speech-Language Pathologists 770 928 192 25% 63 68

Clinical, Counseling, and School Psychologists

868 913 249 29% 63 64

Healthcare Support Workers, All Other

405 450 179 44% 52 56

Medical Transcriptionists 393 365 305 78% 53 54

Social Workers, All Other 423 476 124 29% 44 49

Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers

358 447 158 44% 41 48

Health Information Technologists, Medical Registrars, Surgical Assistants, and Healthcare

661 735 169 26% 50 48

8

Description 2020 Jobs 2030 Jobs 2020

Separations

2020 Turnover

Rate

2020 Vacancies

Average Annual

Openings 2020-2030

Practitioners and Technical Workers,

Nurse Anesthetists 669 733 144 22% 44 46

Occupational Therapists 538 588 147 27% 39 42

Dietitians and Nutritionists 488 537 134 27% 40 41

Occupational Therapy Assistants 302 338 151 50% 36 41

Diagnostic Medical Sonographers 485 553 90 18% 35 36

Physical Therapist Aides 220 263 125 57% 30 34

Cardiovascular Technologists and Technicians

519 551 90 17% 34 33

Ambulance Drivers and Attendants, Except Emergency Medical Technicians

224 262 174 78% 33 32

Psychologists, All Other 218 241 32 15% 18 18

Family Medicine Physicians 352 395 34 10% 16 17

Magnetic Resonance Imaging Technologists

186 196 36 19% 12 12

General Internal Medicine Physicians

286 295 36 13% 11 11

Surgeons, Except Ophthalmologists 295 308 42 14% 13 11

Nuclear Medicine Technologists 169 175 31 18% 11 10

Obstetricians and Gynecologists 220 222 31 14% <10 8

Anesthesiologists 173 176 24 14% <10 7

Psychiatrists 129 143 18 14% <10 6

Pediatricians, General 114 123 15 13% <10 5

Occupational Therapy Aides 27 34 16 59% <10 4

Source: EMSI

2.2 Supply

In this subsection, we report data on the number of students who received a degree or certification in a medical-related field in the 2019-2020 academic year. Jobs in medical-related occupations generally require some form of post-secondary education, ranging from a medical degree to certificate programs that provide qualifications for occupations such as medical billing. We may consider those students who graduate with medical-related degrees or certifications to be the potential supply of new workers in each year that have the necessary qualifications to work in these fields.

Data for this subsection is drawn from the National Center for Education Statistics Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).5 IPEDS data quantifies the number of students who have

5 IPEDS data is reported by the state’s colleges and universities, thus it may not capture all certificate programs that are offered outside of these programs. For instance, pharmacy technicians who are trained by pharmacy chains, or medical specialties offered in the K-12 Career and Technical Education programs.

9

completed degrees or certifications from the all of state’s colleges or universities that receive federal funding. IPEDS identifies 82 different degrees under the medical heading and cross-references those degrees by degree level.

As shown in Table 2, registered nursing is the largest field with nearly 1,400 degree recipients across three degree categories. Becoming a registered nurse requires at least an associate’s degree, but the majority of recipients earn a bachelor’s degree. The next largest degree category is medical assistant, with approximately 460 students who received either a certificate or associate’s degree. A little more than 200 students received pharmacy degrees in in the 2019-2020 school year. And 360 students earned either a medical degree or osteopathic degree, which are required to practice medicine.6

6 Medical and osteopathic doctors require a residency post-graduation in order to be trained in a specialty.

10

Table 2: Degree and Certificate Completions (2019-2020 academic year)

Certificate Associate's

degree Bachelor's

degree Master's degree

Doctor's degree

Total degrees

and certificates

Registered Nursing / Registered Nurse

608 726 56 1,390

Medical / Clinical Assistant 296 168 464

Medical Office Assistant / Specialist

446 1 447

Health Professions and Related Clinical Sciences, Other

8 362 8 33 411

Licensed Practical / Vocational Nurse Training

382 382

Public Health, General 48 177 79 7 311

Osteopathic Medicine / Osteopathy

207 207

Pharmacy 202 202

Allopathic Medicine 153 153

Pharmacy Technician / Assistant 128 18 146

Physical Therapy / Therapist 132 132

Allied Health and Medical Assisting Services, Other

31 100 131

Medical Insurance Specialist / Medical Biller

122 0 122

Dental Hygiene / Hygienist 51 56 107

Medical Insurance Coding Specialist / Coder

51 53 104

Health / Medical Preparatory Programs, Other

102 102

Medical Office Management / Administration

1 100 101

Family Practice Nurse Practitioner / Nursing

4 88 92

Surgical Technology / Technologist 68 16 84

Physician Assistant 2 76 78

Practical Nursing, Vocational Nursing and Nursing Assistants, Other

75 75

Audiology / Audiologist and Speech-Language Pathology / Pathologist

43 31 74

Dietetics / Dietitian 37 17 20 74

Health / Health Care Administration / Management

8 35 28 71

Dental Assisting / Assistant 36 28 64

Radiologic Technology / Science - Radiographer

16 12 36 64

11

Certificate Associate's

degree Bachelor's

degree Master's degree

Doctor's degree

Total degrees

and certificates

Emergency Medical Technology / Technician (EMT Paramedic)

13 50 63

Massage Therapy / Therapeutic Massage

57 5 62

Health Information / Medical Records Technology / Technician

9 51 60

Medical Radiologic Technology / Science - Radiation Therapist

4 44 11 59

Speech-Language Pathology / Pathologist

32 27 59

Athletic Training / Trainer 45 13 58

Phlebotomy Technician / Phlebotomist

58 58

Nursing Assistant / Aide and Patient Care Assistant / Aide

57 57

Respiratory Care Therapy / Therapist

40 17 57

Clinical Laboratory Science / Medical Technology / Technologist

53 53

Dentistry 45 45

Physical Therapy Technician / Assistant

44 44

Clinical / Medical Laboratory Technician

40 40

Sterile Processing Technology / Technician

40 40

Occupational Therapy / Therapist 38 38

Veterinary / Animal Health Technology / Technician and Veterinary Assistant

37 37

Health and Wellness, General 32 32

Substance Abuse / Addiction Counseling

7 25 32

Nursing Administration 3 26 29

Health Aide 27 27

Occupational Therapist Assistant 23 23

Diagnostic Medical Sonography / Sonographer and Ultrasound Technician

2 11 6 19

Health Information / Medical Records Administration / Administrator

10 7 2 19

Public Health Education and Promotion

6 12 18

Medical Reception / Receptionist 17 17

Health Services / Allied Health / Health Sciences, General

8 3 4 15

12

Certificate Associate's

degree Bachelor's

degree Master's degree

Doctor's degree

Total degrees

and certificates

Medical Informatics 2 13 15

Communication Sciences and Disorders, General

14 14

Marriage and Family Therapy / Counseling

5 9 14

Pathology / Pathologist Assistant 13 13

Nuclear Medical Technology / Technologist

1 11 12

Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling / Counselor

11 11

Nursing Practice 9 9

Audiology / Audiologist 8 8

Dental Laboratory Technology / Technician

6 1 7

Community Health Services / Liaison / Counseling

2 4 6

Dental Clinical Sciences, General 5 5

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Technology / Technician

5 5

Nursing Education 5 5

Rehabilitation Science 5 5

Health and Medical Administrative Services, Other

4 4

Electrocardiograph Technology / Technician

3 3

Medical Administrative / Executive Assistant and Medical Secretary

3 3

Pharmacoeconomics / Pharmaceutical Economics

3 3

Psychiatric / Mental Health Nurse / Nursing

3 3

Mental and Social Health Services and Allied Professions, Other

2 2

Nursing Science 2 2

Medical Scientist 1 1

Pharmaceutics and Drug Design 1 1

Source: Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System

13

3 Analysis

As mentioned above, the data presented in Section 2 have a number of limitations that do not allow for a simple comparison between occupational demand and educational completions.

First, educational majors do not correspond neatly with occupational categories. In many cases, earning a particular degree qualifies the worker to enter multiple fields, which may spread those graduates across many different medical occupations. As an example, graduates who earn a medical social work degree can work in five separate occupations: Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselors, Mental Health Counselors, Healthcare Social Workers, Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers, and Social Work Teachers, Postsecondary.7 Because these workers can potentially work in several different occupations, it is difficult to know how many graduates will choose each profession.

Second, some occupations have more advanced educational requirements in order to become licensed in their fields. As an example, students in public health graduated at all levels of education, but some leadership positions in the field require a master’s degree or higher. As a result, the available data may indicate that a given position in public health may be able to be filled based on graduation data, but in reality the available graduate may only possess a bachelor’s degree whereas the position requires a master’s degree.

Third, some current medical workers pursue additional education while continuing to work in their fields. Thus, someone receiving a degree or certificate will appear as a new graduate in the data presented above but may not actually represent a new worker entering the workforce. As an example, EMSI projects that 1,255 registered nurses will be required on average between 2020-2030, compared with 1,390 students who graduated with a registered nursing degree in 2020, which seems to indicate that that the supply of qualified graduates surpasses the demand for nurses. However, an entry-level nursing job requires an associate’s degree, so only the 608 graduates with that level of degree are guaranteed to be new entries into the workforce. Some of the nurses who have an associate’s degree may later earn a bachelor’s and/or master’s degree while continuing to work in their current jobs. The available data do not allow us to estimate with any certainty how much this problem distorts the analysis.

Finally, some medical occupations require additional training beyond a qualifying degree. This is particularly notable for those earning medical degrees. EMSI projected that the state will require 161 new medical doctors between 2020-2030. While 360 students graduated with either a medical or osteopathic degree in 2020, physicians require an additional residency to become qualified in a particular specialty before they can practice medicine. Doctors do not necessarily perform their residencies at the hospitals and other medical facilities located in the same location as their schools. According to the 2020 West Virginia Health Sciences and Rural Health Report,8 about 21 percent of medical and osteopathic students from the 2010-2015 graduating classes were practicing in West Virginia after finishing their residencies. That percentage is down from 39 percent from the 2000-2005 cohort 10 years earlier. Some of the demand for doctors may be met by students who received their medical or osteopathic degrees in other states and completed their residencies here in West Virginia. However, there is no publicly available data on the number of physicians who enter the workforce in the

7 Categories based on IPEDS CIP to SOC Crosswalk: https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cipcode/Default.aspx?y=56

8 https://www.wvhepc.edu/resources/data-and-publication-center/

14

state after completing their residency. Because of this, we are unable to project whether the state currently has enough supply of new doctors to meet the demand.

It also must be noted that many graduates of the state’s colleges and universities do not necessarily remain in West Virginia upon graduation. Though these graduates represent a potential supply of workers, the true supply of workers with the appropriate level of education for certain occupations may be lower than the number of students who receive relevant educational credentials in the state. At the same time, some graduates from out of the state may also come and decide to work in the state. In the end, the out-migration may be partially or wholly mitigated or even outnumbered by in-migration of workers from educational institutions outside of West Virginia. For this reason, richer data are needed.

Because of these limitations, we are unable to draw conclusions about whether the supply of newly educated workers will meet the demand for new workers in the health care occupations. What is clear, however, is that demand for health care workers in West Virginia will continue to grow over the next decade and beyond.

4 Recommendations9

West Virginia has a vital need to understand the state of the medical labor market, particularly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, as described above, current data do not provide the necessary specificity to allow for comparisons between demand and supply in this market. To address these data concerns, we have three recommended actions for the state Legislature:

1. Pass legislation to require a minimum data set10 that will allow for labor forecasting to be collected by every Chapter 30 health care licensing board. This dataset should include employment status, age, plans for retirement in next 5 years, place of employment including zip code, and highest level of education.

2. Create a Center for Healthcare Workforce Data to serve as a data clearinghouse for data on enrollees, graduates, licensees, licensee departures or surrenders, and medical residencies to allow for labor forecasting across all professions.11

3. Pass legislation to require all health care employers who receive state funding to respond to Workforce WV surveys on demand for health care professions annually or bi-annually.

We believe these recommendations will further the goal of documenting the health care labor force in West Virginia.

9 The authors thank Cynthia Persily and Carolyn Canini for their helpful comments and suggested recommendations for this section.

10 See, for example, https://bhw.hrsa.gov/data-research/explore-health-workforce-data-policy

11 Examples of such clearinghouses can be found at the WV Center for Nursing at https://wvcenterfornursing.org/data-reports/, and the Center for Health Workforce Studies https://www.chwsny.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Health-Workforce-FAQs.pdf

15

About the Bureau of Business and Economic Research

Since the 1940s, the BBER’s mission has been to serve the people of West Virginia by providing the state’s business and policymaking communities with reliable data and rigorous applied economic research and analysis that enables the state’s leaders to design better business practices and public policies. BBER research is disseminated through policy reports and briefs, through large public forums, and through traditional academic outlets. BBER researchers are widely quoted for their insightful research in state and regional news media. The BBER’s research and education/outreach efforts to public- and private-sector leaders are typically sponsored by various government and private-sector organizations.

The BBER has research expertise in the areas of public policy, health economics, energy economics, economic development, economic impact analysis, economic forecasting, tourism and leisure economics, and education policy, among others. The BBER has a full-time staff of three PhD economists, and one master’s-level economist. This staff is augmented by graduate student research assistants. The BBER also collaborates with affiliated faculty from within the John Chambers College of Business and Economics as well as from other parts of WVU.

To learn more about our research, please visit our website at https://business.wvu.edu/bber/.