In “Crisis in the Social Work Labor Force,” author Cheryl Hyde discusses the impacts of neoliberal policy on the human service sector.
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.
Despite increasing demand for their services, an alarming shortage of agency-based social workers is forecasted. Concerns about volatility in the social work labor force emerged as the COVID-19 pandemic waned. 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.
