Aging U.S. Population Is Creating Major Job Shortages in Health Care, Says AMN CEO

CNBC quotes AMN Healthcare Services CEO Susan Salka, who notes the health care industry is swimming upstream when it comes to unemployment. "We have a lot of things driving our industry, certainly starting with an aging population, which drives utilization of health care," says Salka. "But it also creates shortages within the health care workforce. We have really severe shortages within nursing, physician, allied, and even within leadership. So we're really seeing those two things come together right at the worst time, probably, for health care." AMN's main line of business is staffing, which often goes beyond simply assigning candidates to open positions. For AMN, optimizing hospital staff means making sure nurses and physicians are where they need to be at all times via predictive analytics and better scheduling methods. "We're in a time when the number of health-care job openings, if you just look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics data, are twice the number of hires," says Salka. "In fact, we are at record highs for vacancies and job quits. So it's really essential that we bring everything that we can to help them get the staff they need, whether it be temporary or permanent." She concludes that it is also important for AMN to help clients optimize the staff they already have.