Closing the Health Workforce Gap in California -The Education Imperative

While all industries are projected to show major shortages of college-educated workers in California by 2020; the shortage has already hit the health care sector. And it's not just nursing. "Allied health" practitioners make up 60% of the health workforce with technical occupations such as medical assistants, pharmacy technicians, respiratory therapists and the like.

The Golden State will soon be hit by the 'double whammy' of California's aging population and workforce, with a generation of highly skilled Baby Boomers retiring from the industry. Despite having a projected growth in population in the coming years, the study found that California lags behind the rest of the nation in providing an adequate health care workforce.   The first study of it's kind in a decade, the Executive Summary of the report outlines the factors driving the demand of the allied healthcare workforce as well as illustrates the factors limiting the supply. The full report defines the allied healthcare workforce, the projected growth in California, limiting supply and demand factors and an analysis of nursing as it relates to the role with allied healthcare.

Stakeholders across the state overwhelmingly cited limited educational capacity in allied health education programs as the greatest factor restricting workforce supply. The study also offers policy recommendations both specific to health care training programs and to overall educational performance.

The research was funded by Kaiser Permanente and the California Wellness Foundation and conducted by Health Workforce Solutions, LLC. The study was sponsored by the Campaign for College Opportunity.