Healthcare workers report high job turnover amid pandemic

Today, an observational study of 125,717 full-time US healthcare workers in JAMA Health Forum spotlights high turnover rates amid the COVID-19 pandemic among physicians, long-term care workers, and health aides and assistants, especially members of historically marginalized racial groups and women with young children.Researchers from the University of Washington and the University of Minnesota used data from the nationwide household Current Population Survey to compare turnover rates before the pandemic (71,843 observations from January 2019 to March 2020) with those of the first 9 pandemic months (38,556 observations from April to December 2020) and the subsequent 8 months (44,389 observations from January to October 2021).Turnover was defined as a healthcare worker's report of being unemployed or out of the workforce the month after he or she reported being employed in healthcare. "The survey defined unemployment as not currently working but being available to work and searching for a job during the prior 4 weeks or waiting to be recalled to a job from which they had been laid off," the study authors wrote.The researchers estimated the likelihood of the workers leaving their jobs by using a model that controlled for factors such as healthcare occupation and setting, race, and age.Average participant age was 42.3 years, 77.0% were women, 67.4% were White, 13.0% were Black, 10.1% were Latino, 6.7% were Asian, 1.4% were American Indian/Alaska Native/Pacific Islander, and 1.3% were of other races.More quit than were unemployedBefore the pandemic, on average, 3.2% of healthcare workers reported turnover, compared with 5.6% in the beginning of the pandemic and 3.7% in the following 8 months.