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Genre
Report
Date
2024-07-25
Advisor
Committee member
Department
Social Work
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DOI
https://doi.org/10.34944/ab71-y982
Abstract
Social workers constitute the largest occupational group within the education and human service workforce, providing "cradle to grave" services often to society's most vulnerable individuals, families, and communities. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there are just over 700,000 social workers employed in the U.S. Nearly 50% of these social workers are in child, family, and school sites; 26% in healthcare organizations; 16% in mental health and substance abuse facilities; and the remainder in various other settings such as grassroots community agencies, public libraries, or creative arts programs.1 Despite increasing demand for their services, an alarming shortage of agency-based social workers is forecasted.2 Concerns about volatility in the social work labor force emerged as the COVID-19 pandemic waned.3 While social work had once been viewed as a growth profession, recent research underscores the pernicious impact of heightened stress and distress on work engagement and worker mental health. Low pay, precarity, and work-related stress are leading social workers to leave their jobs and the profession.5
In this policy brief, I look at a root cause of this pending crisis: neoliberalism and its impact on the human service agency-based social work labor force. Based on research in which I interviewed 60 professional human service workers, as well as other scholarship, I suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic revealed and exacerbated, rather than caused, these deleterious working conditions for social workers.6 To understand these broader causes and consequences of social worker burnout, one needs to grasp the consequences that 40 years of neoliberal policies have had on the human service sector.
Description
PPL Policy Briefs provide concise summaries of policy-relevant academic research for policy makers and the public.
Citation
Hyde, C. (2024). Crisis in the Social Work Labor Force. Public Policy Lab.
Citation to related work
Available at: https://liberalarts.temple.edu/research/labs-centers-and-institutes/public-policy-lab/publications
Has part
Public Policy Lab Policy Brief, No. 22
ADA compliance
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