Employee Recruitment and Retention in Senior Care

The senior living industry will need to recruit 1.2 million new employees by 2025 and must be poised to create working environments and career paths attractive for these workers, according to Argentum research published in “Getting to 2025: A Roadmap for the Senior Living Industry.”

Because about 70% of the 65-plus population – including many people with cognitive impairment – requires some form of long-term care, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the nation’s aging population will create unprecedented demand for the services of the senior living industry in the coming decades. Until the 1980s, seniors who could not live safely in their own home or with family had few alternatives to institutional care. Today, more than 835,200 older adults live in senior living communities where they can get the assistance they need when they need it while maintaining their privacy, dignity, and respect with assistance of a professional, caring staff.

Other key Workforce Development findings from the roadmap report:

• Senior living is an engine of growth for the overall economy. The industry outpaced average U.S. job growth by 3.7% between 2001 and 2014.
• Total senior living employment jumped 68% between 2001 and 2014, an increase of more than 346,000 jobs.
• Senior living continued to post steady employment growth during the Great Recession, even as most other industries were shedding jobs. Between 2007 and 2010, the senior living industry added more than 84,000 jobs.
• A list of the top jobs in senior living including positions in healthcare, food service, management, financial, maintenance, personal care, administration, and installation and repair based on 2012 to 2025 projections from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

“Getting to 2025: A Roadmap for the Senior Living Industry” analyzes the current landscape of senior living care and forecasts a 10-year outlook. It was produced in consultation with hundreds of top senior living executives and other advocates, thought leaders, and policy experts, outlining the most significant opportunities and challenges facing the senior living industry over the next decade. It includes new research to help define the future of senior living in the key areas of Workforce Development, Quality Care, Operational Excellence, Consumer Choice, and Memory Care.

The full report is available digitally on Argentum's website.