Report: America's Health Care Workforce Shortage Threatens Patient Access and Economic Competitiveness

NEW YORK, June 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- With more than 700,000 job openings in health care monthly and only 306,000 unemployed workers available to fill them, workforce shortages are limiting access to care, increasing strain on providers, and threatening the long-term resilience of one of the nation's largest and most important industries.

A new report from The Conference Board outlines a comprehensive strategy to address health care workforce shortages by expanding pathways into health care careers, improving retention and job quality, promoting team-based and preventive care, and deploying technology to expand effective workforce capacity. The report builds on the Health Care Workforce Policy Summit that The Conference Board held in March 2026 in partnership with the Covista Foundation, with additional sponsorship from Northwell Health and Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies.

The report, Addressing US Health Care Workforce Shortages, argues that simply increasing hiring will not solve the problem. Instead, policymakers, employers, educators, and health systems must work together to enable a vibrant, well-trained, clinically prepared, and effective health care workforce and remove barriers that prevent clinicians from practicing where they are needed most.

"Health care workforce shortages are no longer a sector-specific challenge; they are a national access, productivity, and competitiveness issue," said David K. Young, President of The CEO Center at The Conference Board. "When workers cannot access timely care, employers face higher costs, lower productivity, and greater workforce disruptions. Addressing these shortages will require business leadership, policy innovation, stronger workforce pathways, and investments that support health care professionals throughout their careers."

Actions for policymakers (Federal, State, and local government) include:

• Expand and diversify pathways into health care careers through earlier exposure to them, clearer school-to-career routes, scholarships, and nontraditional training models. The Northwell School of Health Science in New York City, for example, is an innovative model encouraging health care careers in local communities, particularly among underserved populations.
• Expand training infrastructure, including faculty, preceptors, clinical placements, community-based teaching capacity, and stronger educator-provider partnerships.
• Reinforce primary care as the foundation of access to health care by addressing disincentives that steer clinicians away from primary care and align clinical training capacity with patient and population needs.
• Support recruitment and retention in rural and underserved communities by aligning training, placement, and financial support with local workforce need.
• Reform payment systems so reimbursement better supports prevention, value through outcomes, primary care, care coordination, and multidisciplinary team-based care rather than service volume alone; reduce avoidable paperwork that diverts time from patients.
• Address geographic shortages, particularly in rural and underserved communities. Reduce barriers that limit workforce deployment by expanding telehealth and licensure portability, and using immigration pathways, including credential bridges, for clinicians trained abroad.

Actions for business include:

• Build stronger pipelines through employer-educator partnerships that expand apprenticeships, earn-and-learn models, and clear career ladders into high-need roles. An example of this is the work Covista is doing with health care systems like SSM Health, whose Aspiring Nurse Program trains students within the facilities where they work, creating direct pathways to employment and delivering practice-ready nurses into high-need roles. Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies similarly supports stronger pipelines by partnering with Colorado colleges, technical programs, and nursing educators to introduce students and early-career nurses to apheresis, building awareness of a critical and specialized field enabling the future of biotechnology.
• Build the health care workforce across the full career journey, as demonstrated by the focus of Covista Open Doors, a multiyear impact commitment to build and sustain the health care workforce, investing across each stage of the health care career continuum through career exploration partnerships, emergency financial support for students, and mental health and well-being programs for practicing clinicians.
• Treat retention as a workforce strategy by supporting professional development and advancement, workplace safety, team-based care, reducing administrative burdens, and better job design.
• Scale team-based care so professionals can work at the top of their license, expanding effective capacity and improving patient experience and outcomes.
• Deploy technology and human-complementary AI to improve clinical decision making, streamline administration, and improve job quality, supported by strong governance and privacy rules. Expanding the productivity of the clinical workforce will expand the capacity of the clinical workforce.

About The CEO Center
The CEO Center, founded in 1942 as the Committee for Economic Development, is the public policy center of The Conference Board. Members of The CEO Center are chief executive officers, key executives of leading US companies, and university Presidents. Collectively, they represent 30+ industries, over five million employees, and more than $2T in annual revenues. The nonprofit, nonpartisan, business-led policy center delivers reasoned solutions in the nation's interest.
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About The Conference Board
The Conference Board is the global, Member-driven think tank that delivers Trusted Insights for What's Ahead®. Founded in 1916, we are a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization.
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SOURCE The Conference Board