Recession Now Hits Jobs in Health Care

In the April 12, 2009 WSJ, they report on healthcare sector softening as the recession lingers.   The article mentions cuts at Mayo, Akron General and others.  Also quotes Paul Levy from Beth Israel Deaconness in Boston (author of Running a Hospital blog earlier posted about concerning their transparent efforts at saving costs):

More than 16 million people — one in eight workers on U.S. payrolls — work in health care today, up from just 1% of the work force 50 years ago…Employment in health care and social assistance — which includes hospitals, doctors offices, nursing homes and social services such as day care — has grown by half a million jobs since the recession began in December 2007, while the rest of the economy has shed 5.1 million jobs…But the pace of job growth in health services has slowed sharply this year. The sector added an average of 17,000 jobs per month in the first three months of the year, less than half last year’s pace…Since1958, there have been nine recessions, but employment in health services has declined only a handful of times…The only significant losses to date occurred in mid-1984, as the industry shed 41,000 jobs…Since then, no month has seen a drop of more than 4,000 jobs in health care, and there have been no back-to-back declines…The decline, while unusual, is still likely to be a temporary break in the industry pattern. Growth in health-care spending, and thus employment in the sector, is likely to rebound when the recession ends, a function of the enormous advances in medical technology and Americans’ strong appetite for health care… “It’s a long-term shift reflecting changes in technology and what consumers want,” says Robert Fogel, a Nobel laureate and professor at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. “Health care is the growth industry of the 21st century.”

via Recession Now Hits Jobs in Health Care – WSJ.com.

Compare to an earlier analysis of the state of US Hospitals and the Current Recession.  Hospitals may be recession resistant; but are by no means recession proof:

“Observed impacts that appear related to the recession:

• Hospital non-operating and total margins have decreased dramatically, especially in the third quarter of 2008. Total margins are at historically unprecedented lows.

• Approximately 50% of hospitals are operating in the red.

• Hospital days-cash-on-hand has deceased significantly, following a pre-recession trend.

• Restricted investment assets have shrunk substantially for major teaching hospitals. These are non-realized losses that are not reflected in total margins declines.

• Hospital reimbursement rate increases appear to be shrinking — with possible negative impacts on net patient revenue in 2009.

• Total inpatient admission volumes may be falling below expectation.

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