Less attractive healthcare creates vacancy pressure

The number of unique (online) job openings in healthcare, after a dip in the second quarter of 2020 (-8%), is back to pre-coronagraph levels. Compared to 2019, the vacancy pressure among healthcare professionals has continued to increase, with each active job seeker having a choice of as many as five vacancies. Last year, this ratio was 4:1.

Care less attractive

The percentage of "non-healthcare professionals" who find healthcare an attractive sector to work in dropped by one-fifth between the first and second quarters of 2020. Consequently, vacancy pressures continued to increase over the past year but the attractiveness of the healthcare industry declined sharply, in part due to the corona crisis.

A similar trend is seen among healthcare professionals. For 30% of them in 2018 was the 'not renewing an expiring contract' was the main reason for changing jobs. In 2019, "dissatisfaction" (35%) and "need for a new challenge" (20%) were the main reasons. "Healthcare has been under a magnifying glass over the past year. In the beginning, the focus was on "our heroes in healthcare," job security and vital professions. Then the heavy workload, understaffing and salary and remuneration perils were highlighted in the House of Representatives," Roders said. "During the first wave, loyalty was high and mobility was low, but the partial failure of structural appreciation and increasing workload makes loyalty decrease and mobility become higher, as evidenced also by the number of vacancies."

Much dissatisfaction

Because of the current shortage, the focus is often on recruiting, but bonding is just as important. Salary and other forms of appreciation are crucial here. There is a lot of dissatisfaction among healthcare professionals in this area, which could explain for the sharp increase in the number of self-employed workers." After a sharp increase in 2019 (+11%), the number of zzp'ers in healthcare has also increased sharply last year (+18%). More than ten percent of all Dutch healthcare professionals are now self-employed.

Healthcare professionals invisible online

Only 7% of all healthcare professionals is at this currently actively looking for a job, compared to 12% of the Dutch labor force. Nearly two-thirds of healthcare professionals say they have not been approached in the past year despite high vacancy pressures for a new job and that is remarkable. The healthcare sector faces a very strained labor market and should be actively seeking to talent but that is not to hardly the case. An important explanation for this seems to be the limited online presence of healthcare professionals. For example, only 16% of them can be found online by intermediaries and/or employers, and only a quarter of healthcare professionals use LinkedIn when looking for a new job. Among the Dutch workforce, these percentages are 19 and 31%.