New Public Health Workforce Data

The de Beaumont Foundation and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) have made new data from the 2021 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PHWINS), accessible through a new interactive dashboard.

The data — which includes demographics, job characteristics, training needs, intent to stay or leave, professional engagement and satisfaction, and overall well-being of employees — result from a survey of nearly 45,000 state and local government public health workforce employees (at all levels) conducted by de Beaumont and ASTHO between September 2021 and January 2022. Through the interactive dashboard, users are able to explore the data by age, gender, race/ethnicity, professional level, type of health department, as well as other criteria.

Most relevant to the National Consortium for Public Health Workforce Development includes the finding that, while the public health workforce overall has become more diverse, those in the most senior positions continue to be predominantly white. Also of note is the expressed need for training related to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. More respondents than ever identified these topics as gaps in training.

Due in part to the well-documented and pandemic-related burnout among public health workforce members, nearly one-third of state and local public health employees said they are considering leaving their organization in the next year and 44% said they are considering leaving within the next five years.

The PH WINS 2021 survey was distributed to nearly 138,000 state and local governmental public health employees, representing 47 state health agencies, 29 big city agencies, and 259 local health departments. It was completed by 44,732 individuals.

The National Consortium’s working group will be making use of the data in their effort to address challenges to recruitment and retention in the governmental public health workforce.

Please tell us how you might be able to use the data in your own efforts to better enable the public health workforce to achieve health equity.