Healthcare Workers Are More Confident About Their Prospects and the Future

by Clive Riddle, August 8, 2014

Randstad Healthcare, the national healthcare staffing firm, issues a quarterly report on healthcare workers’ confidence, conducted by Harris Poll, based on a survey of physicians, nurses, healthcare administrators and other healthcare professionals. Their just released second quarter 2014 report, which tells us that confidence is up for the second quarter in a row, and that healthcare workers had the highest level of confidence compared to all industries they track.

So what does that mean, that healthcare workers are increasing in confidence, are more confident than other workers, and what exactly is it that they are confident about?

The Randstad Healthcare Employee Confidence Index is a composite of various confidence measures via an online survey. The questions asked address their optimism regarding:

• Their current employers’ outlook
• Ability to find a new job
• Likelihood of retaining existing job
• Availability of other jobs
• Strength of the economy

Key survey findings for healthcare workers included:

• 71% have confidence in the future of their current employer, compared to 54% in the previous quarter.
• 61% have confidence in their ability to find a new job (same as previous quarter)
• 81% say it is not likely they will lose their jobs in the next 12 months, compared to 72 percent in Q1 of this year.
• 28% are likely to look for a new job, compared to 33% in Q1, and 46% in Q4 2013.
• 44% believe fewer jobs are available (compared to 48% previous quarter). 61% are confident they could find a job in the next 12 months.
• 31% say the economy is getting stronger (compared to 29% previous quarter). 33% believe the economy is staying the same, and 37% believe it is getting weaker

Given all the political hubbub about the health care reform, it’s interesting to see that the pivotal ACA implementation year of 2014 actually brought a rise in confidence about job prospects, sector economic strength sand overall economic outlook, for those working directly in the industry. Perhaps this means that insiders don’t view the ACA as all doom and gloom.