The Growing Demand for Healthcare Workers: A State-by-State View

This series of 13 fact sheets provides information about the important role immigrants are playing in addressing critical workforce shortages in the healthcare field.  The fact sheets cover the following states: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Data from the years 2017-2021 are presented relating to: 1) the growing number of job postings for physicians of different specialties, licensed nurses, dentists, podiatrists, pharmacists, and other allied health professionals; 2) top hospital and health care system employers; 3) advertised wages; 4) healthcare job postings by rural-urban classification, especially identifying rural shortages; 5) the number of healthcare job postings that required bilingual skills; and 6) the share of healthcare workers who are immigrants. The authors note that  “immigrants routinely punch above their weight in the field,” having higher percentages of health care positions than their share of the population. The fact sheets also document the problem of “brain waste,” i.e., the underutilization and unemployment of many skilled immigrants who are unable to practice due to challenges such as re-credentialing and language proficiency. The American Immigrant Council emphasizes the need to “implement policies that not only attract and retain global talent that is complementary to the U.S.-born workforce, but that also build career pathways for immigrants who already call the state home.” (Robert Like, MD, MS)

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