Just before Labor Day, the National Investment Center released the findings in its latest Executive Survey of for- and not-for-profit senior living providers. For the first time, rising operating costs exceeded staffing challenges as the number one reported challenge providers currently face. However, eighty percent of providers still report employee turnover and attracting and retaining staff as their second-most cited present-day challenge. Optimism that the long-standing labor shortages will start to ease was given as the reason; 14% of providers reported that they believe their staffing issues will improve by year-end, and approximately half have the same belief for the first half of 2023.
In terms of backfilling vacant positions, however, 96% reported that they are paying overtime wages, and 74% are reliant on temporary workers and agencies – and 55% of those expect that will not change before the end of the year. Finally, the pace of move-ins/admissions continued to follow an inverse relationship with the prevalence of COVID variants over time in providers’ communities; for this survey, the pace of move-ins/ admissions was reportedly increasing as the BA.4 and BA.5 surges diminished.
