The State of the US Governmental Public Health Workforce, 2014–2017

Katie Sellers, de Beaumont Foundation
Jonathon P. Leider, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Elizabeth Gould, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
Brian C. Castrucci, de Beaumont Foundation
Angela J. Beck, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Kyle Bogaert, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
Fátima Coronado, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Gulzar H. Shah, Georgia Southern University
Valerie A. Yeager, Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health
Leslie M. Beitsch, Florida State University
Paul C. Erwin, University of Alabama- Birmingham

Abstract

Public health workforce development efforts during the past 50 years have evolved from a focus on enumerating workers to comprehensive strategies that address workforce size and composition, training, recruitment and retention, effectiveness, and expected competencies in public health practice.

We provide new perspectives on the public health workforce, using data from the Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey, the largest nationally representative survey of the governmental public health workforce in the United States.

Five major thematic areas are explored: workforce diversity in a changing demographic environment; challenges of an aging workforce, including impending retirements and the need for succession planning; workers’ salaries and challenges of recruiting new staff; the growth of undergraduate public health education and what this means for the future public health workforce; and workers’ awareness and perceptions of national trends in the field. We discussed implications for policy and practice.