The Show-Me State’s employment in the health care and social assistance industry is increasing at less than half the rate of the average growth in similar states that have expanded Medicaid. That’s according to the latest report released June 20 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The BLS found while the health care and social assistance industry is the state’s largest employment sector, it only increased jobs by 0.9 percent for the first five months of 2014 compared to the same time last year.
In 2011 and 2012, the industry averaged 1.9 percent annual growth, according to a news release.
According to the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center – the research arm of the Missouri Department of Economic Development – nine peer states similar to Missouri also were analyzed in overall employment size, five of which had expanded Medicaid by June 2013, including Washington, Minnesota, Maryland, Arizona and Colorado. The other four states studied – Indiana, Tennessee, Louisiana and Alabama – had not.
During the first five months of 2014, the states that expanded Medicaid had increased employment by an average 2.1 percent, whereas the peer states that had not expanded Medicaid by June 2013 averaged a growth rate of 0.7 percent.
“It is too early to know the direct causes of this slowdown in health care and social assistance employment growth in Missouri, but given past trends, the analysis of similar states, and this industry’s large footprint, it is a matter of concern,” MERIC noted in the release.
The Missouri Hospital Association recently surveyed hospitals to determine how cuts in Medicare and Medicaid were impacting the workforce, among other topics.
According to a news release, 41 hospitals and an outpatient service had recently announced layoffs of 998 workers and 49 hospitals were implementing a hiring freeze involving 2,145 employees.
Locally, Mercy cut 42 positions in Springfield as part of systemwide cuts. The cuts are limited to non-patient care support areas. Throughout St. Louis-based Mercy’s 40,000-employee system, 220 positions were eliminated, which equates to less than 1 percent of its workforce.
Based on an economic impact analysis of the survey data using the Regional Economic Models Inc. Policy Insight model, MERIC estimates the direct loss of approximately 3,145 hospital jobs due to layoffs and hiring freezes could impact an additional 2,001 jobs in the state due to indirect effects to companies that support hospitals and businesses that rely on worker spending.
These jobs supported nearly $260 million in wages and $395 million in gross state product, according to the release.
Missouri currently employs 383,400 workers in the industry, up 3,600 jobs from a year ago. The health care and social assistance industry in Missouri, which includes hospitals, ambulatory health care, nursing homes and social services, provides jobs to 1 in 6 workers in the private sector and paid an average wage of just more than $41,300 in 2013. Hospitals, which account for just fewer than 125,000 jobs, paid an average salary of $51,280 the same year.
An earlier MERIC study showed a significant boost for the Show-Me State economy should Medicaid expansion prevail in the legislature.
According to the analysis, the expansion of Medicaid eligibility for adults earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level would result in the creation of 23,868 jobs, $9.9 billion in new wages and $14.6 billion in new gross state product between 2015 and 2022.
Medicaid expansion also would generate $402 million in new state general revenue 2015-22, including $53 million in new general revenue in 2015, according to the study.
Medicaid expansion failed to pass the legislature in 2014, but industry lobbyists are working with legislators to prefile bills before the start of the 2015 session in January.
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