Skip to Content
Back to Press Room


Health Care Employers Plan to Continue to Add Headcount in 2009, Finds Annual CareerBuilder.com Forecast

CHICAGO, January 14, 2009 - While the recession injured many industries in 2008, health care was one of the few bright spots in the employment picture, growing by 372,000* jobs last year. The large aging population has health care employers in need of qualified workers: stat. Therefore, despite the current economic conditions, health care employers will continue to increase staff in 2009, according to CareerBuilder.com’s annual health care hiring forecast.


Close to one-in-five (17 percent) of large health care employers (50 or more employees) plan to increase the number of full-time, permanent employees in 2009, while 67 percent foresee either making no change in the number of employees or are unsure. Sixteen percent plan to decrease the number of employees.

"The health care industry continues to boast high demand for qualified workers. Employers are reacting to this need by continuing strong recruiting efforts this year," said Jason Ferrara, Vice President of Corporate Marketing for CareerBuilder.com. "Half of health care employers, the highest among industries we surveyed, have open positions for which they can’t find qualified candidates. In response, health care employers will have to adjust their recruitment and retention strategies to find and keep top talent."

HEALTH CARE RECRUITMENT TRENDS FOR 2009

1. More Flexibility - Flexible work options continue to be an important benefit for health care employers to provide in an effort to attract new candidates and to prevent employee burnout. More than two-in-five (41 percent) of health care employers will provide more flexible work arrangements for employees in 2009, including:

  • Alternative schedules - come in early and leave early or come in later and leave later - 72 percent

  • Compressed work weeks - work the same hours, but in fewer days - 52 percent

  • Telecommuting - 41 percent

  • Job sharing - 17 percent

  • Summer hours - 8 percent

2. Recruitment Tools - As demand for qualified workers continues, health care employers will leverage a variety of recruitment tools to reduce the time-to-hire cycle and fill open positions. Health care employers plan to spend more money on the following recruitment tools in 2009:

  • Online recruitment sites - 24 percent

  • Newspaper classifieds - 22 percent

  • Career fairs - 19 percent

  • Staffing firms and recruiters - 14 percent

  • Social networking sites - 8 percent

3. Retaining and Rehiring Retirees – Nearly one-third (32 percent) of health care employers are concerned about the loss of intellectual capital at their companies as a large number of baby boomers approach retirement age.

  • Twenty-one percent of health care employers say that due to a shortage of qualified workers, they are either likely or very likely to rehire retirees from other organizations in 2009.

  • Twelve percent are likely or very likely to provide incentives for workers at or approaching retirement age to stay on with the organization longer.

4. Freelance Workers - To help alleviate their employees’ demanding work load, health care employers are hiring contract and freelance workers to help get the job done.

  • One-third (33 percent) of health care organizations plan to hire contract or freelance employees in the new year.

  • Five percent of health care employers are hiring more contract or freelance workers in 2009 than they did in 2008.

5. Green Jobs - Being "green" is a burgeoning movement within the health care industry as companies seek ways to run more efficiently. Health care employers plan to be more environmentally aware in 2009, as 14 percent plan to add "green" jobs. Seven percent added them in 2008. "Green"jobs are positions that implement environmentally conscious design, policy and technology to improve the conservation and sustainability.

*Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics December 2008 Employment Situation Summary, January 2009.

Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder.com among 329 large heath care hiring managers and human resource professionals (employed full-time; not self-employed; non-government; with at least significant involvement in hiring decisions) ages 18 and over between November 12 and December 1, 2008, respectively (percentages for some questions are based on a subset of U.S. employers or employees, based on their responses to certain questions). With a pure probability sample of 329, one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 5.40 percentage points, respectively. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies. About CareerBuilder.com
CareerBuilder.com is the nation’s largest online job site with more than 23 million unique visitors and over 1.6 million jobs. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI), Tribune Company, The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI) and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), the company offers a vast online and print network to help job seekers connect with employers. CareerBuilder.com powers the career centers for more than 1,600 partners, including 140 newspapers and leading portals such as AOL and MSN. More than 300,000 employers take advantage of CareerBuilder.com’s easy job postings, 28 million-plus resumes, Diversity Channel and more. CareerBuilder.com and its subsidiaries operate in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Asia. For more information, visit http://www.careerbuilder.com.

CareerBuilder Media Contact
For all media inquiries and interview requests, contact:

Jennifer Grasz
(P) 773-527-1164
(E) jennifer.grasz@careerbuilder.com