In an industry plagued by a shortage of qualified personnel, overworked and highly stressed healthcare workers are looking to remedy their work situation in 2005. Thirty-nine percent of healthcare workers plan to change jobs this year. Six-in-ten healthcare workers report their workloads have increased in the last six months and almost one-half characterize their workloads as too heavy. This is according to a new CareerBuilder.com survey, "2005 Outlook: Healthcare Workers," which was conducted from November 22, 2004 to December 2, 2004 and included more than 275 healthcare workers.

"The demand for qualified healthcare workers will continue to increase as the U.S. population ages," said Rhonda Lipsey, Healthcare Employment Expert at CareerBuilder.com. "More than 300,000 healthcare jobs were created in 2004 and economists are projecting this trend will continue in 2005 with nurses, medical assistants, and radiology technicians as some of the top-recruited positions. If employers want to attract and keep qualified workers, they need to find a new treatment plan for their employees' needs."

Four-in-ten healthcare workers say they do not look forward to going to work each day and question whether their employers offer adequate compensation. Although 63 percent of healthcare workers say they did receive a salary increase in 2004, 46 percent of healthcare workers still report dissatisfaction with pay. Of those who did receive an increase, one-half were given a raise of three percent or less.

The ability to develop and move forward in one's career is also an area of concern for healthcare workers. Three-in-ten state they are dissatisfied with opportunities to advance in their current organizations and one-in-ten say they were overlooked for a promotion in 2004. Twenty-eight percent of these workers do not feel their jobs provide sufficient learning and professional development opportunities.

The quality of leadership at work can shape how workers perceive their job and how they feel about going to work each day. Forty-one percent of healthcare workers are dissatisfied with the performance of the senior leaders in their organization and 34 percent are dissatisfied with the performance of their direct supervisor or boss.

CareerBuilder.com currently features more than 100,000 healthcare jobs on its site and experiences over 2.5 million job searches in healthcare each month.

About the Survey

The new CareerBuilder.com survey, "2005 Outlook: Healthcare Workers," was conducted from November 22, 2004 to December 2, 2004 of more than 275 health services workers. To collect data for the survey, CareerBuilder.com commissioned SurveySite to use an e-mail methodology whereby individuals who are members of SurveySite Web Panel were randomly selected and approached by e-mail invitation to participate in the online survey. The results of this survey are accurate within +/-5.88 percentage points (19 times out of 20).

About CareerBuilder.com

CareerBuilder.com is the nation's leading online job network with more than 15 million unique visitors and over 600,000 jobs. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. , Tribune Company , and Knight Ridder, Inc. , the company offers a vast online and print network to help job seekers connect with employers. CareerBuilder.com powers the online career centers for more than 450 partners that reach national, local, industry, diversity and niche audiences. These include more than 130 newspapers and leading portals such as America Online and MSN. More than 30,000 of the nation's top employers take advantage of CareerBuilder.com's easy job postings, 10 million-plus resumes, comprehensive screening tools and more. Millions of job seekers visit the site every month to search for opportunities, sign up for automatic email job alerts, and get advice on job hunting and career management. For more information, visit http://www.careerbuilder.com/ .

   Media Contact:

   CareerBuilder.com
   Jennifer Sullivan
   (773) 527-1164
   jennifer.sullivan@careerbuilder.com

SOURCE: CareerBuilder.com