Supply and demand for professional and family care during recessions

• In Event: Aging and Intergenerational Supports: Economic and Care Resources Across Generations

Abstract

Health care jobs have long been thought to be “recession-proof,” with relatively stable demand for health workers even when unemployment is high elsewhere (e.g. Wood 2011, Staiger et al. 2012, Stevens et al. 2015). Home health and personal care aides seem to be no exception, with home health and personal care aide employment growing by 12.5% nationwide between 2008 and 2010 even as overall employment fell by 7.4%. These occupations in particular have low barriers to entry and thus may be good opportunities for workers facing an otherwise weak labor market, counter-cyclically increasing the supply of home care workers.

In this paper, we leverage spatial variation in the severity of the 2008 recession to estimate how business cycles affect home care employment, access to professional home care, and use of informal family care. We explore differences in the composition and amount of care between older adults with Medicaid, who should not experience wealth- or income-induced changes in demand for home care, and older adults paying out of pocket, for whom ability to pay may be affected by the business cycle. We also examine differences between people with and without nearby family caregivers, to assess whether impacts are driven by greater availability of family care. Finally, we assess potential changes in the quality of care, as business cycles may change who works in home care and who provides family care.

 

 

 

Authors

• Elizabeth Engle, Macalester College
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Karen Shen, Johns Hopkins University
  Presenting Author