New research from the American Immigration Council, The Growing Demand for Healthcare Workers in Texas, highlights the crucial role immigrants in Texas are playing to help address critical workforce shortages in the healthcare field. To meet the growing healthcare needs of the Lone Star State, especially in rural counties, the state will need to implement innovative policies that attract and retain immigrant talent that is complementary to the U.S.-born workforce, and that also builds career pathways for immigrants who already call the state home.
Key findings from the brief include:
- There is growing demand for healthcare workers in Texas. Between 2017 and 2021, online job postings for unique healthcare worker positions in Texas increased by 63.3 percent. During this same time, demand in small- to medium-sized metro counties increased by 82.8 percent.
- Immigrants are helping meet growing demand for healthcare workers, across the skills spectrum. While immigrants made up 17.1 percent of the overall state population in 2019, they represented 32.7 percent of physicians, 25.5 percent of surgeons, and 18.5 percent of respiratory therapists in Texas.
- Demand for bilingual healthcare workers is on the rise. From 2017 to 2021, the number of healthcare job postings that required bilingual skills in Texas increased by 167.0 percent.
- Although there is a growing need for healthcare workers in Texas, many immigrants who received specialized training abroad cannot practice in the state. In 2021, 32.4 percent of immigrants with healthcare-related professional and doctorate degrees were working in a healthcare occupation that did not require one.
