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National Skills Summit
Innovative Initiatives: Health Care and Child Care
Chapter 3: Introduction
Health Care Child
Care
The health care industry continues to be a major source of new jobs in today's economy. Employment in health services has increased by one-third over the past 10 years, adding over 2.5 million jobs. And this growth is likely to continue, given the aging of our population and changes in how and where health care is delivered.
Eight of the 20 occupations projected to grow the fastest from 1998 to 2008 are health related. Well over a total of one million registered nurse, nursing aide and attendant, and personal care and home health aide positions are expected to be filled over this period. According to participants at the National Skills Summit, one of the most critical issues facing the industry today is the challenge of retaining registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, pharmacists, therapists, home health workers, and support staff.
Similarly, the child care industry is experiencing a tight labor market in qualified, available workers. Women's labor force participation has nearly doubled in the last 50 years. This growth is increasing the need for child care. More than 10 million women with preschool age children work, many requiring the services of professional child care providers.
This demand has created tremendous opportunities for individuals trained to provide high-quality child care. However, low salaries and lack of benefits contribute to a high turnover rate of child care providers. For example, in 1999, full time in-home child care workers had median weekly earnings of $211; early childhood teaching assistants earned an average of $275, and pre-kindergarten and kindergarten teachers averaged $440. By contrast, the median weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers for all occupations in 1999 was $549 per week. These low wages are a disincentive for workers considering child care careers.
The partners whose practices are described here have taken great strides to address these challenges.
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