1. Exploring Opportunity Occupations and Careers in Healthcare
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Exploring Opportunity Occupations and Careers in Healthcare
April 10, 2017

2. Welcome Logistics Call-in number: 888-625-5230
Participant code: #
Webinar link:
You can listen through your PC or dial in to the phone.
The webinar experience depends on your connection. If at any time you’re experiencing problems, please dial the toll-free number.
This call is being recorded and will be available at a later date.
Click the Materials button to access a pdf version of this presentation.
To Ask a Question
Click the Ask Question button
(Located in the lower-left section of the webinar window)
Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this presentation do not necessarily reflect official positions of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta or the Federal Reserve System.

3. Exploring Opportunity Occupations and Careers in Healthcare
MAXIMUM EMPLOYMENT MATTERS:
Exploring Opportunity Occupations
and Careers in Healthcare
Julie Kornegay
Senior Economic and Financial Education Specialist
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta – Birmingham Branch

4. Why is the Federal Reserve Bank hosting a webinar on opportunity occupations and healthcare?
Dual mandate of price stability and maximum employment

5. Developing Human Capital Skilled Labor Produces New Industry Attracts
Creates High- Paying Jobs
Increases Standard of Living

6. The Fed offers education outreach programs that are economic and personal finance oriented.
The Fed Today Infographic

7. Exploring Opportunity Occupations and Careers in Healthcare
MAXIMUM EMPLOYMENT MATTERS:
Exploring Opportunity Occupations
and Careers in Healthcare
STUART ANDREASON
Workforce Development Director
Center for Human Capital Studies
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
MELS DE ZEEUW
Research Analyst II
Community and Economic Development
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

8. Opportunity Occupations
Opportunity Occupations: Jobs that pay more than the national annual median wage, but are generally considered accessible to workers without a BA degree
2014: 37 million jobs in Opportunity Occupations, 27.4% of employed, down from 29.8% or 38.7 million in 2005
Large variation in share of total employment between Metro areas: e.g. 32.1% in Louisville-Jefferson, Kentucky but just 11.9% in New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island
Definition: These are well-paying jobs for workers that do not go the traditional 4-year college route, and offer them a ticket into the middle class, often without having to incur huge amounts of debt in the process. Important note, salaries are adjusted for differences in cost of living between metropolitan areas.
Downward trend of opportunity occupations nationally: less access to well-paying jobs for middle-skills workers. Stay tuned for D6 report to see whether this applies to Sixth District states.
Large degree of regional variation in the share of the workforce that opportunity occupations comprise. Using BGT data, the national report showed these make up 32% of jobs in Louisville, compared to just 12% in New York. Part of this is driven by cost-of-living differences.

9. Top Opportunity Occupations
Presented in descending order of employment
Real mix of white-collar/professional and blue-collar/manual work.
2 in healthcare: Registered Nurses and Licensed Practical Nurses

10. Opportunity Occupations in the Southeast
21.5
23.8
0.6
54.1
17.1
26.0
1.2
55.6
17.8
32.5
48.5
27.4
21.8
0.5
50.3
19.5
19.9
0.8
59.8
18.6
32.6
48.3 0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
2014 TN MS LA GA FL AL
Note: Estimates based on Burning Glass Technologies' data on online job ads
Numbers may not add to 100 due to rounding.
Higher wages, BA required
Opportunity Occupations
Lower Wages, BA required
Lower Wages, no BA required
Presented in descending order of employment
Real mix of white-collar/professional and blue-collar/manual work.
2 in healthcare: Registered Nurses and Licensed Practical Nurses

11. Healthcare Opportunity Occupations in the Southeast (2014)
Southeast report: deeper dive into returns to education, and opportunity occupations for all states and metro areas in the southeast. We used data on online job ads to identify for which occupations employers requested a Bachelor’s degree in less than 50 percent of advertisements. We then combined these data with publically available data sets from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis to determine whether these occupations made more than the national median wage

12. Top Opportunity Occupations in the Southeast (2014)
Rank
Occupation
Total
Employment
Share
Job Ads
2014
Median
Annual Salary 2
Registered Nurses
43,680
2.4%
6,239
$54,900 9
Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational
Nurses
13,900
0.7%
1,289
$35,470 1
163,950
2.1%
46,204
$60,920 7
43,890
0.6%
6,865
$41,130
68,010
1.7%
22,211
$62,520 6
24,290
3,810
$37,620
40,460
10,730
$58,850
21,450
1.1%
2,390
$37,270
28,070
2.6%
3,900
$54,940
9,170
0.8%
1,091
$35,750
55,560
2.0%
13,134
$56,370
21,470
2,761
$36,000 AL FL GA LA
Health care opportunity occupations, like Registered Nurses and Licensed Practical Nurses are among the most prevalent opportunity occupations in all Southeast states.
DEEPER DIVE INTO RN/LPN INDUSTRIES, and CROSSTABS OF BA REQUIREMENTS PER INDUSTRY. EXAMINE OTHERS OUTSIDE TOP 10, LIKE MEDICAL DEVICE TECHNICIANS.
Note: salaries are not adjusted by regional purchasing parity, so given the higher cost of living in Florida, it makes sense that median salaries for both positions are higher. Still, even after adjusting for that, differences remain.
Also, these numbers hide significant regional differences in job opportunities and salaries, even within states. For instance, just in Alabama, the median annual salary for registered nurses ranges from $45.6K in Florence-Muscle Shoals to $56K in Huntsville. And its share of the workforce goes from 1.6% in Auburn, to 3.6% in Dothan. The same is the case for LPN positions in the state. Here, salaries range from 34K in Mobile, to $37.7K in Montgomery, and it’s share of the workforce goes from 0.5% in Montgomery to 1.1% in Tuscaloosa. Similar regional differences exist within each state, and remain even after adjusting for cost of living differences between metros. This means that workers that are mobile, that are willing and able to move to where opportunities are, can see big payoffs in terms of job opportunities and higher salaries, and that holds for opportunity occupations in the medical field. MS TN

13. Percent of Online Job Ads Requesting Bachelor’s Degree or Higher for Each Metro Area (2011-2014)
In examining the data, we discovered a large variation in educational requirements for these opportunity occupations among employers across the country, and this affects the healthcare opportunity occupations as well. This chart shows one of them: registered nurses. Each bar represents a metro area, and it shows the percentage of online job ads in which employers request a bachelor’s degree when they advertise for a Registered Nurse position.
Just to illustrate this variation. Between 2011 and 2014, just 8 percent of job ads for registered nurses in Hot Springs, Arkansas required a BA degree, compared to 63 percent in Winchester, Virginia.
This variation matters, because it signifies middle-skill workers face strongly varying degrees of opportunity across the country. And this is the case for Registered Nurses.

14. Differences in Employer Educational Preferences
We conducted some additional research to see whether this regional variation in educational preferences for middle skill jobs disappears when we control for things like skill-levels, experience, and industry. To do this we combined several publically available datasets on employment and wages like the Occupational Employment Statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a large, 27 million observation dataset on online job ads posted by employers between 2011 and 2014.
This table shows some of the main findings of a paper published with a colleague at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. It’s important to note that not displayed here are our controls for each job advertisement’s skills, experience, and the industry of a job. Basically, even when controlling for these factors, regional differences remain.
(Red) Larger population is associated with a higher probability of employer’s demanding a BA degree for these occupations. For instance, in the largest metro areas, with 2.5 million or more residents, employers are 4.3 percent more likely to request a BA degree for registered nurses positions compared to metros with less than 250,000 inhabitants.
2. (Purple) Stark regional differences in demand for BA degrees, even when controlling for all other variables: for instance, job ads in the Northeast for Registered Nurses are 8.9 % more likely to require a BA compared to the South
3. (Green) More recent graduates  higher probability of employer requesting BA degree
4. (Light Blue) Another important finding we believe is that registered Nurses see a trend where employers are increasingly moving towards requesting a BA degree. This shows that in 2014, employers were 8 percent more likely to request a BA degree compared to 2011.

15. Regional Differences
This is just to illustrate the regional differences that exists for these Opportunity Occupations. Again, even when controlling for experience, skill levels, and industries of job ads.
For instance, within the Southeast, employers in many metro areas, including Huntsville, Jacksonville, Nashville, and Miami are less likely to request BA’s for registered nurses positions. In contrast, MSAs like Portland, OR, and New York see much greater demand for BA degrees for these jobs among employers.

16. Opportunities for Middle Skill Healthcare Jobs
How to create alternative paths to opportunity occupation for workers that lack time/resources to access them?
Job based training (incumbent worker training)
Competency based education

17. Want to know more? Community Development Site
Opportunity Occupations Report
Stuart Andreason:
Mels de Zeeuw:
Plug the Brochure and the upcoming report on the website

18. Exploring Opportunity Occupations and Careers in Healthcare
MAXIMUM EMPLOYMENT MATTERS:
Exploring Opportunity Occupations
and Careers in Healthcare
PATRICIA HORTON
Workforce Initiatives Coordinator
Georgia Hospitals Association

19. ADAPTING TO A TIGHT LABOR MARKET
Building infrastructure to support intergenerational workforce
Developing and retaining talent
Developing community partnerships
Collecting data on workforce to forecast future needs
Increasing educational capacity
Listening and understanding what is important to the different generations and being willing to try new approaches in the workplace
Providing growth and development for the staff by offering training, engaging the staff in decision making that impacts them, providing opportunities for advancement.
Engaging organizations across the community to partner in designing and developing training models that ensure a sustainable healthcare workforce. Rather than working in silos, through partnerships combine resources to innovate and design processes and programs that introduce healthcare to middle and high school students.
Individual organizations and statewide we need data on the current healthcare workforce to be able to make decisions and predict future needs, which will direct our efforts in developing a sustainable pipeline for the future healthcare workforce.
Academic institutions and providers are having to work together to increase the number of students that can be educated. For instance using technology for the clinical placement of students. Also using simulation tools as an adjunct in training since clinical placement availability is often limited. 19

20. CURRENT HEALTHCARE LABOR TRENDS
More diverse workforce
Intergenerational
Emphasis on leadership development
Employee retention (training and development, work culture, career advancement)
Interprofessional collaboration
Increasing the diversity of the healthcare workforce is essential to address the problem of healthcare disparities. More organizations focus on having a more culturally competent workforce by including training programs for their staff in orientation.
Since there are many generations working together it is important to build an organizational culture that develops and nurtures employees of all ages to provide excellent patient care.
Leading in todays healthcare sector requires specific knowledge and skills to be effective due to the complexity and rapidly changing environment. There is more emphasis on leadership development since the evidence demonstrates that good leaders have a positive impact on results.
Many organizations are investing in more training and development for their employees since they are interested in professional development, this increases morale, prepares them for other opportunities, improves retention and has a positive impact on patient care outcomes.
More focus on Interprofessional collaboration across the disciplines because improves the work culture and therefore has a positive impact on patient outcomes. 20

21. HEALTHCARE IN THE SOUTHEAST
High growth sector
Career opportunities
Advancement potential
Apprenticeships
Creating a culture of health
Healthcare is one of the fastest growing sectors due to increased access to care, the aging population and their increased need for medical care. The industry is addressing the need to increase the available labor pool of health care employees through a variety of initiatives.
Healthcare offers career opportunities in many different fields. Healthcare encompasses roles that include clinical positions where you are in some type of caregiving role, such as nurse, pharmacist, imaging, and there are other fields such as environmental services, IT, financial, marketing, administrative, human resources, food services, to name a few.
There is advancement potential throughout healthcare, whether you are looking to move from entry level to midlevel to professional level roles or if you are looking to move into a leadership role. There are different career paths that you can take depending on the direction you want to pursue.
Apprenticeships: As the cost of education rises and the pace of change escalates the opportunity for work-based learning approaches has been recognized as particularly significant in health care. The workplace is recognized as a place of learning and professional preparation and more apprenticeships are being developed.
With the emphasis in healthcare of creating a culture of health, moving from a model of sick care to a model focused on health, new types of positions are being created across the care continuum. 21

22. CHANGES IN HEALTHCARE TRAINING
Developing workforce strategies and models from entry level to professional level
Developing STEM programs for high school students
Partnering to expand educational capacity
Utilizing technology to expand student clinical experience
Simulation models being utilized to streamline training
Guided career paths for individuals interested in getting into healthcare are being developed beginning at the entry level and then progressing to a professional level. These models are important in building the pipeline for a sustainable healthcare workforce.
STEM programs are being developed for high school age students to engage and involve them in specific educational activities that prepare them for careers in this healthcare.
Educational institutions at the college level and provider organizations are working together to find solutions to address some of the challenges that limit the educational capacity to educate more individuals.
More and more technology is being utilized in a variety of ways to streamline processes and improve our efficiency. We are now utilizing technology to assist with student clinical placement which has improved this process in a number of ways.
Simulation models are also being utilized to enhance and streamline training. 22

23. OPPORTUNITIES IN HEALTHCARE
Careers not just jobs
Guided career paths from entry to professional level
Advancement opportunities
Leadership opportunities
Numerous careers in healthcare: Clinical, Technology, Human Resources, Education, Food Services, Legal, etc.
We want students considering healthcare to see it as a career and not just a job. It is not the field to merely work to make money but an opportunity to find more meaning in your work and make a difference in the lives of others. There are numerous opportunities to progress and advance.
Guided career paths are an important tool for the healthcare profession to have a better understanding of the opportunities, requirements, and support available to progress in their career.
Healthcare has a broad range of advancement opportunities in a variety of disciplines and roles.
Good leadership is important for the success of any organization. It is absolutely critical to the success of healthcare organizations. Preparing leaders for the future is imperative in healthcare as there are many leaders nearing retirement age.
Many different types of professions are a part of healthcare. If you have an interest in an area other than clinical you may still be able to work in the healthcare sector. 23

24. HIRING AND EDUCATION WHAT EMPLOYERS WANT IN EMPLOYEES
Competent and culturally diverse
Service minded
Commitment to collaboration
Employee engagement
Compassionate
Adaptable to change
Strong interpersonal skills
Across healthcare we are seeking individuals that are competent and diverse in order to match the population of patients that are being cared for.
In all professions within healthcare being service minded is an important value that is considered on employment.
Working in collaboration with others is an important skill that is expected in healthcare within all disciplines and professions.
Building and sustaining employee engagement at all levels is important to staff satisfaction, and patient safety and quality. Organizational growth and further advancements in patient care come when you have an engaged staff.
Compassion should be an automatic expectation in healthcare but it is something all employers are looking for in those they hire.
Healthcare is changing rapidly and being flexible and adaptable to change is part of the nature of being in a profession that is constantly learning.
Soft skills are not taken for granted in healthcare. It is frequently talked about with great emphasis since it is such an important skill to possess. 24

25. Exploring Opportunity Occupations and Careers in Healthcare
MAXIMUM EMPLOYMENT MATTERS:
Exploring Opportunity Occupations
and Careers in Healthcare
CLAIRE LOUP
Senior Economic and Financial
Education Specialist
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta –
New Orleans Branch

26. Teaching Human Capital and the Importance of Postsecondary Education

27. Infographic – Visual Reinforcement
Why develop Human Capital?
“What to expect” with less than high school diploma
How long to earn $1m by education level
Education and unemployment
Education and earnings

28. Lesson Plan – Active Learning
Katrina’s Classroom Lesson 4: Part 1 Human Capital and Employment Time: 50 – 55 minutes
Topics:
Evaluate human capital
Unemployment rate
Labor force
Education and Income

29. YOUR HUMAN CAPITAL Current human capital Future human capital
Areas and subjects in which you have a lot of knowledge
Education
Additional training
Employment
Other skills
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
How does your current human capital differ from your future human capital? 
What steps do you need to take to achieve your future human capital? human capital?

30. Graph: How Long to Earn $1Million?
Source: Current Population Survey (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, bls.gov/emp/ep_chart_001.htm )

31. Earnings, Unemployment, and Education
Source: Current Population Survey (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, bls.gov/emp/ep_chart_001.htm )

32. Lesson Plan – Active Learning
Katrina’s Classroom Lesson 4: Part 2 Evaluating Postsecondary Opportunities Time: 50 – 55 minutes
Topics:
Identify postsecondary programs of study
Evaluate education options
Evaluate associated costs

33. More Classroom Tools & Resources

34. Questions? To Ask a Question:
Click the Ask Question button in the lower-left section of the webinar window.

35. Next in the Series
Exploring Careers in Energy
August 2017

36. Thank You For Participating
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Survey
Resources
Notification of Online Archive
Find information about other upcoming programs and classroom resources at:
Thank You For Participating