Dire Shortage Seen in Allied Health Professionals

On the positive side, about half of the allied health professional jobs that will be required in the state by 2030 are entry-level positions, which don't require post-secondary training or certification. Those positions can be filled with people who have a high school education.

However, the rest of the workers will require more education. "However, researchers estimate that California's universities and community colleges will only have capacity to train 634,000 of the needed workers, between 63% and 79% of the allied workers the state will require," the report added.

"Unless California increases the capacity of its education system, by 2030 there will be between 170,000 and 375,000 jobs that must be filled either by out-of-state workers or by Californians who would be forced to leave the state to get the necessary training. Already today, there are allied health training programs with waiting lists of one year or more," according to the state.

Ambulatory care settings are the largest employer of allied health workers, far more than hospitals or nursing and residential care facilities.

The report concluded, "If the state does not provide sufficient training opportunities in allied health, this situation will represent a missed opportunity for hundreds of thousands of Californians looking for family-sustaining wages and job security."

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