Manpower requirements and training in the health care sector * findings of the IAB establishment panel and the IAB health care study

Abstract

"Over the past years, the demand for employees in the health care sector has increased. Due to the demographic change, the demand for skilled employees can be expected to continue to rise in this sector. Against this background, this article tries to study empirically the manpower requirements in health care, using the data of two representative establishment surveys. What is of particular importance here are the questions as to how far this demand can be met by recruiting on the external labour market, and what role in-company further training plays in this context. First, the current and future manpower requirements of the health care sector are compared with those of the other economic sectors, using the data of the IAB establishment panel. Then the company survey on manpower requirements and training in health care, which was carried out in the spring of 2002, is consulted to obtain more precise information on the specific problems concerning the search for employees and the filling of jobs in this sector. The corresponding descriptive analyses prove that the companies of the health care sector do indeed have a high demand for skilled employees that cannot always be met solely by external recruitment. Finally, based on these findings, the relationship between skill needs and in-company further training is examined using multivariate analyses. Here it can be shown that companies with demand for skilled employees are particularly committed to further training. However, as the majority of the company-supported further training schemes take place at least in part during working hours and are counterbalanced by the remaining employees doing extra work, the problem arises that the shortage of staff is only shifted within the company when acting in such a way. A solution to this problem is provided by the instrument of job-rotation as laid down in the Job-AQTIV Law. The results of a further survey are to prove whether this is in fact taken up by the companies of the health care sector." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Gewiese, T., Leber, U. & Schwengler, B. (2003): Personalbedarf und Qualifizierung im Gesundheitswesen. Ergebnisse des IAB-Betriebspanels und der IAB-Gesundheitswesenstudie. In: Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Vol. 36, No. 2, p. 150-165.