New York’s home health employment is continuing to soar, growing by 57,000 jobs or 10 percent from 2023 to 2024, according to newly released data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The state’s workforce of home health and personal care aides grew to an estimated 623,000 as of May 2024, according to BLS’s Occupational and Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, an annual survey posted Tuesday.
That equated to 171 aides per 1,000 residents aged 65 or older, which was the highest rate in the U.S. – 153 percent higher than the national average and 24 percent ahead of the No. 2 state, California.
The state’s one-year increase of 57,000 accounted for almost a fifth of the home health aide jobs added nationwide.
Within New York, the category of “home health and personal care aides” – with a median hourly wage of $18.26 – represented 38 percent of all job growth. Predominantly financed by Medicaid, the state’s safety-net health plan, home health remained the largest job category in the state, outnumbering “retail sales persons” by a ratio of 2.7-1.
The BLS data show that New York’s overall health-care workforce grew to 1.4 million workers in 2024, which was a one-year increase of 97,000 or 7 percent, about three times the average rate for all occupations statewide. It’s also 244,000 jobs or 21 percent larger than it was in May 2019, the last survey before the pandemic. Over those five years, health care went from 12 percent to 15 of all occupations.
Most of that increase occurred in lower-paid “healthcare support occupations,” which grew by 8 percent or 62,000 jobs. The category of “healthcare practitioners and technical occupations” – which includes doctors, nurses and other licensed caregivers – saw a one-year increase of 6 percent or 36,000 jobs.
The survey showed a one-year increase of 16,000 or 9 percent among registered nurses, the second-largest health-care occupation and the fourth-largest overall. The state’s total of 204,000 R.N.s was 14 percent higher than before Covid-19 struck.
About the Author
You may also like
After Tariff Shock, Albany Should Face its New Fiscal Reality
This year, for once, state lawmakers' failure to pass a timely budget could prove to be a stroke of luck.
When President Trump rolled out his on April 2, Albany leaders had not agreed on a spending plan for the f Read More
Sorting Fact from Fiction on the Future of Medicaid
As Washington contemplates cutbacks to federal funding for Medicaid, officials in Albany have reacted in two self-contradictory ways.
On one hand, they warn of Read More
Immigrant Enrollment in ‘Emergency Medicaid’ Surges to 480,000
One of the biggest drivers of New York's Medicaid enrollment growth over the past decade has been "emergency Medicaid" for undocumented immigrants, newly released state records show.
Read More
Medicaid’s Missing Million
The Health Department has been either unable or unwilling to document the eligibility status of almost one million Medicaid recipients, raising further concern about the possibility of large-scale over-enrollment. Read More
New York’s Medicaid Spiral Is Worse Than Hochul Admitted
Although Governor Hochul said last week that the current trajectory of Medicaid spending is "not sustainable," the upward trend is even steeper than she and her budget director have acknowledged.
Read More
Upstate Insurance Customers Pay the Price for Medicare’s Hospital Rate Hike
A billion-dollar Medicare windfall for upstate hospitals has turned into a crisis for upstate health insurers that's threatening to disrupt coverage for millions of New Yorkers.
The Read More
New York’s Proposed ‘MCO Tax’ Would Generate a Fraction of What Lawmakers Expected
The Hochul administration's proposed "MCO tax" would generate far less than the $4 billion in extra federal aid anticipated by state lawmakers when they approved the concept this spring, according to documents obtained by t Read More
Hochul Hides the Specifics of a Looming Tax on Health Insurance
The Hochul administration has requested federal approval for a multibillion-dollar "MCO tax" on health plans without announcing the move or providing details to the public.
As by l Read More