FAQ
KEY POINTS ABOUT THE HWS LABOR MARKET PULSE® INDEX
WHAT IS THE HWS LABOR MARKET PULSE® (LMPI) INDEX?
The HWS Labor Market Pulse® Index (LMPI) provides a quarterly barometer of local market health care workforce expansion and contraction. Patterned loosely after the Case-Shiller home index and based on a proprietary algorithm, the LMPI identifies and enables comparison of 30 health care labor markets by tracking elements including temporary health workforce shortages and surpluses, facility and bed closures, announced layoffs and expansions, and local economic trends. The LMPI will be published quarterly as part of Labor Market Pulse® and distributed nationally to health care executives, the media and other interested parties.
HOW DO YOU INTERPRET THE LMPI?
The HWS Labor Market Pulse® Index (LMPI) benchmarks local market health workforce activity against national health workforce growth estimates.
• A reading close to the national composite index (54.4 for Q4 2009) suggests near-term local market growth is inline with national hospital employment trends.
• A reading above the national composite index suggests the demand for healthcare workers is growing faster than the national average.
• A reading below the national composite index suggests demand for healthcare workers is growing slower than the national average. In some cases, readings below 50 would indicate a temporary, near-term surplus in health care workers due largely to announced layoffs and facility closures.
HOW DOES THE LMPI LAG OR CORRELATE WITH GENERAL LABOR MARKET TRENDS? OTHER ECONOMIC INDICATORS?
The HWS Labor Market Pulse Index (LMPI) is a leading indicator of local health care labor market demand as it is derived from announced expansion and contraction plans, among other data. The HWS LMPI measures where near-term demand for health care workers is strongest based on a number of tracking variables including temporary health workforce shortages and surpluses, facility and bed closures, announced layoffs and expansions, and local economic trends.
IS THE INDEX BASED ON CLINICAL AND NON-CLINICAL WORKFORCE CHANGES?
Yes, it is based on changes in the skilled health care workforce, which includes hard-to-fill clinical, technical, managerial and support roles.
WHAT CAN HEALTH CARE EMPLOYERS DO WITH THIS DATA? OTHER STAKEHOLDERS?
Hospitals, health systems and large physician group practices who recognize the need and benefits of out-of-market recruiting strategies can use the HWS LMPI to target markets that may be experiencing temporary labor surpluses. The detailed information included in each report allows employers to target specific locations, schools, and in some cases specialty occupations.
Regional and national organizations that serve and support the health care industry (e.g. staffing, consulting, outsourced services, public/private/for-profit educators, and public policy groups) can use this information to differentially invest in areas with the greatest need for growth or opportunity for impact. For example:
- marketing and planning executives can more effectively allocate advertising budgets, sales territories and other campaigns
- educators can better understand near-term workforce surpluses and shortages to better time class starts, program expansions, and set expectations for prospective students, expected graduates, and alumni.
WHAT CAN HEALTH CARE JOB SEEKERS DO WITH THIS DATA?
Given the variability across labor markets, health care job seekers considering relocation should prioritize those markets with readings consistently above the national composite index.
ARE THERE PLANS TO EXPAND THE SCOPE AND DETAIL OF THE INDEX IN THE FUTURE?
Yes. HWS has been testing additional proprietary primary data collection methodologies in three markets for the last year. It is anticipated that these methods will be rolled out to twenty markets in 2010 and then input into the LMPI calculations. HWS is also currently evaluating several other proprietary data sources.
ABOUT THE LMPI METHODOLOGY
Labor Market Pulse scours local press releases, new articles and other verifiable sources to quantify the impact of acute and urgent care facility expansion and closures, large scale recruitment, and temporary workforce reduction announcements.
A proprietary estimate of net job creation (or reduction) is at the heart of the HWS Labor Market Pulse® Index (LMPI). The estimated net job creation is then adjusted for state labor market information estimates including total acute care employment in the local market, local employment trends, and other economic indicators included in this report. These adjustments allow Labor Market Pulse to compare local markets to each other and to larger national and international trends.
National health care workforce growth estimates are based on seasonally adjusted hospital employment estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics “Employment Situation New Release” available online at:
http://www.bls.gov/schedule/archives/empsit_nr.htm.
Details of Labor Market Pulse estimates and adjustments are held in strict confidence by Health Workforce Solutions LLC and considered trade secrets. For more information on this and other health workforce indices and indicators, contact info@healthws.com.