Near-term demand for healthcare workers is the strongest in San Francisco, Riverside/San Bernardino, Calif., and Denver, says Health Workforce Solutions LLC’s Labor Market Pulse Index released today for Q1 2012.
The LMPI is a quarterly barometer of local market healthcare workforce fluctuations that tracks 30 labor markets throughout the U.S.
“We are not sure what specifically is driving the growth in certain pockets in the west other than general economic recovery,” said David Cherner, managing partner of Health Workforce Solutions.
Among the other key findings for the first quarter of 2012:
- There appears to be renewed hiring fervor at a number of larger institutions including Kaiser Permanente, the Cleveland Clinic, Christus Health and several institutions in the Texas Medical Center in Houston .
- The LMPI composite index posted an 8 percent decrease in the first quarter of 2012, primarily due to continued weakness in certain large markets including Miami, New York and Boston .
- Of the 30 major markets tracked by the LMPI, the Miami/Fort Lauderdale/Miami Beach area remained the weakest for the second straight quarter.
“Overall, the recovery in the healthcare labor markets is a bit bumpier than we expected,” said Cherner. “Of particular note, Dallas, Denver, San Francisco Bay and Riverside have most consistently outperformed the rest of the country over the last year. On the other side of the equation, metro areas such as Cleveland, New York and Portland, Ore., have been much more erratic and slower to come back, although we did see a positive spike in Cleveland this quarter thanks to a big hiring announcement by Cleveland Clinic.”
“Like the broader economy, the recovery in the healthcare labor markets will likely remain bumpy through the rest of the year, although on much stronger footing than a year ago,” added Cherner. “That said, with the fate of healthcare reform still unclear until after the Supreme Court decision in a couple months, this next quarter could remain somewhat volatile and uneven across the 30 markets that we cover.”
Follow HFN Editor Rene Letourneau on Twitter @ReneLetourneau.