Currently, just 9% of older adults with disabilities who receive long-term care services at home rely solely on paid help, and that may be attributed to cost, said Chris Herbert, acting managing director with the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. The median monthly cost for a home health aide is $2,568 — or $30,810 annually, data show.

Despite the reasons why family caregivers are more common, the ratio of potential family caregivers to those over 80 will decrease from 7- to-1 today to 4-to-1 by 2030, and to less than 3-to-1 by 2050, AARP estimates.

“The family care ratio is going the wrong direction, and is going to put more pressure on other resources of care,” Herbert said.

Those other resources of care, including personal care and home health aides, are projected to see a surge in demand in the coming years, with those professions topping the list of the top 10 fastest growing jobs in America, according to a recent article by 24/7 Wall St. 

The growth in employment for home health aides is projected to grow by 48.5% between 2012 and 2022, just .3% less than the projected growth for personal care aides.

Written by Cassandra Dowell

The post Baby Boomers To Put More Pressure on Home Health Demand appeared first on Home Health Care News.

Personal care aides ranked No. 2 on the top 10 list, with home health aides ranking close behind at No. 3.

The anticipated growth of the senior population can be attributed to the increased need for home health service workers, 24/7 Wall St. says. The 50-and-over population is projected to increase about 20% by 2030.

24/7 Wall St. identified the fastest jobs in America based on estimated employment figures and projections for 2012 and 2022 published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for more than 1,000 occupations.

The BLS expects that over 580,000 jobs for personal care aides will be created in the decade through 2022, the most out of any of America’s fastest growing jobs. Yet, the median annual wage for personal care aids was just $19,910 as of 2012, well below the nationwide median of $34,750 for all occupations.

The growth in employment for home health aides is projected to grow by 48.5% between 2012 and 2022, just .3% less than the projected growth for personal care aides. The median annual income for home health aides is $20,820.

The effects of an aging population, which has access to Medicare, “combined with innovations that provide new treatments” has led to increases in health care spending. In turn, more spending creates “a high demand for jobs to provide these services,” Martin Kohli, chief regional economist for the BLS, tells 24/7 Wall St.

In fact, the average of all health support occupations is expected to grow 28% by 2022. Six jobs within the top 10 are in the health care sector.

Economic trends and government and private sector initiatives are also expected to contribute to growth in specific occupations.

Read the full article here.

Written by Cassandra Dowell

The post Home Health, Personal Care Aides Top List of U.S. Fastest Growing Jobs appeared first on Home Health Care News.