WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
Snapshot: Who Is the Senior Living Employee?
T
he senior living industry employs nearly 1 million people and its workforce is expected to grow to 1.2
million by 2026. Each of those employees comes to work with a story of who they are, where they came from, and what they plan for their future. As the industry needs to recruit and retain an additional 300,000 employees, understanding the social and eco- nomic profile of today’s senior living work- force may assist providers in making critical decisions that affect overall operations. To that end, using data from the Cen-
sus Bureau’s 2016 American Community Survey (ACS), Argentum took a look at just who is working in the senior living industry and analyzed their similarities and differ- ences. The ACS is the largest household survey administered by the Census Bureau, sampling 3.5 million households annually. Using a portion of the ACS data, Argen- tum analyzed the profile of those who self-identified as working in senior living. The resulting pool consisted of 7,042 in- dividuals in seven broad job groupings of people who serve the aging population in senior living communities—the best rep- resentation of the senior living workforce possible from available survey data. A full, detailed report can be found in
Argentum Quarterly Issue 1 2018, a compli- mentary resource for members. Here, we pro- vide a basic overview of some of the findings.
Topline takeaways • Four out of five people in the senior liv- ing workforce are women. Women also hold the majority of management jobs, with a nearly 70 percent share. The share of black women in management is great- er than the overall national labor force. Black employees (African-American and
34 SENIOR LIVING EXECUTIVE MARCH/APRIL 2018
of Caribbean Island origin) in health care and personal care occupations is twice that of the U.S. workforce.
• The occupations of health aides, li- censed practical nurses, and registered nurses each have greater shares of men under age 30 than women.
• The total senior living workforce is slightly younger than the U.S. workforce and less likely to be married than the na- tional average.
• Six percent of the senior living workforce is 65 and older, with most of this group found in administrative support jobs.
• Cleaning and maintenance workers are the oldest job group with one-half age 50 or older. These workers include the highest share of immigrants out of all senior living job groups, at 24 percent.
• About 10 percent of all senior living em- ployees speak Spanish at home.
• Hispanics make up 13 percent of the senior living workforce, less than their 17 percent share of the U.S. labor force.
• African- , Philippine- and Caribbean Island-born workers account for 10 per- cent of the senior living workforce, com- pared to 5 percent of the total workforce.
• Nearly one-quarter of food service work- ers are students age 16-24. Almost half of food service employees work fewer than 35 hours per week.
• Twenty percent of registered nurses work 45 or more hours per week.
• Eighty-three percent of senior living work- ers live within 30 minutes of work and nearly half live within 15 minutes of work.
• The Midwest has the youngest workforce with 32 percent under age 30; 24 percent are under 30 in the South. The work- force in the South is 39 percent black and 14 percent Hispanic and in the West 7 percent black, 25 percent Hispanic, and 16 percent Asian. The West has the greatest share of foreign-born workers at 29 percent.
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