Empowering Our Future Workforce Requires Transforming High Schools
Training students to fill badly needed jobs when they graduate will help everyone for years to come.
Set them up for success.
Photographer: Leonard Ortiz/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images
America’s health-care system was experiencing a staffing crisis long before anyone heard the word “Covid,” but the pandemic supercharged it, by leading to many resignations and early retirements. Today, the system is more short-staffed than ever, even as it faces its next big shock: an aging population. Unless we get serious about addressing the shortage of qualified health-care workers, the quality of medical care will suffer, and its cost will rise.
By 2030, all baby boomers will be 65 and older, and their longer life expectancies mean that the need for medical care will continue to rise. Yet there are currently about 2 million unfilled health-care jobs. These include medical assistants, respiratory therapists, health information technicians and other roles — and an additional 2 million new jobs are expected by 2031, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.