This article explores the roots of healthcare and social care staff shortages, from demographic change to integration barriers. Moreover, it outlines solutions based on WifOR Institute’s scientific findings – using examples from Saxony and Hamburg. In these two case studies, we analyzed current and forecasted workforce deficits while providing concrete recommendations to tackle labor gaps. Our research underscores how strengthening education, technological advances, and stakeholder collaboration can help secure the future of this essential sector in Europe.
Labor shortages in healthcare and social care are worsening in Europe
A 2023 Eurofound report identifies healthcare and social care as one of the EU sectors most affected by staff shortages. Among the impacted healthcare jobs are medical professionals and nurses, while social care roles include caregivers for children and the elderly, social workers, counsellors, and special needs educators.
Twenty EU countries reported a shortfall of doctors in 2022 and 2023. Additionally, 15 countries reported a shortage of nurses (OECD, 2024). Meanwhile, the WHO projects that the bloc will face a deficit of 4.1 million healthcare professionals by 2030.
In early childhood education and care, most countries are also facing employment gaps, according to a recent EU policy brief. For example, Germany currently experiences a lack of 72.500 skilled workers in this sector despite declining birth rates. Filling these positions with qualified personnel, instead of low-skilled staff, remains a challenge.
Causes of staff shortages in healthcare and social care
A 2023 WHO report lists the main reasons behind the attrition of healthcare and social workers:
- Ageing: An increasing number of professionals in the sector are retiring.
- Emigration: Skilled workers are leaving their locations to work in other countries. This type of migration toward other EU and non-EU states impacts countries like Romania, Poland, and Bulgaria.
- Poor working conditions and reduced work-life balance: This leads to stress, burnout, and employee dissatisfaction.
The report additionally lists the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the growing gap between supply and demand of services, and the lack of forecasts and planning as factors aggravating shortages. Additionally, rural and underserved areas experience these gaps more prominently.
Labor shortages, the result of demographic change in Europe
The gaps in healthcare and social care also stem from a broader European phenomenon: a shrinking labor market due to demographic change.
As the population ages and the boomer generation starts to retire across the continent, the positions they are leaving are too many to be filled by the existing workforce. An analysis by Business Europe indicates that the working age group declined from 269 million in 2012 to 264 million in 2021. Projections point out that this group will continue to decrease, with an estimated reduction of 35 million people by 2050.
This shift does not only reduce the number of available taxpayers but also increases the number of older people in need of health and care provision.
- To explore how aging populations are transforming societies and labor markets, read our article on demographic change.
Staff shortages in healthcare and social care: The example of Saxony
Workforce deficits can also be identified and assessed at the local level. Saxony, like many other German and European states, is also impacted by demographic change – with labor shortages affecting communities directly. Our study for SINN Sachsen shows that:
- The childcare (or early childhood education), social work, and special needs sector will face an estimated shortage of 1,000 professionals by 2035. While the number of children is decreasing, the demand for qualified professionals in this field continues to expand.
- In the case of elderly care, current labor shortages in Saxony are expected to double to about 2,800 in the next 10 years. Demographic change means that service needs are rapidly rising. At the same time, the mental and physical burden of these jobs makes it difficult to recruit and retain staff.
- Health and nursing are already experiencing the biggest shortages, with a forecast of almost 5,900 unfilled positions by 2035. The growing aging population continues to drive the demand for treatment.
Solutions to staff shortages in healthcare and social care
To combat address gaps, our study on Saxony provides practical recommendations for action that are also applicable to other regions. These are:
- Avoiding de-professionalization: To maintain high quality standards of service, it is important that low-skilled jobs do not replace skilled ones. Modular training paths, courses for further qualifications, and opportunities for career switching can help staff reach the required skill level.
- Strengthening funding: Organizations need stable and reliable financial resources to keep their employees and invest in the future. In the case of non-profit organizations, addressing the dependency on temporary project funding and the legal limitations imposed to the building of reserves can ensure long-term sustainability.
- Reducing bureaucracy and using digitalization: Complex procedures and slow approval processes waste valuable time from skilled workers. Simplifying administration, using digital tools, and speeding up qualification recognition can help make personnel available for core tasks.
- Applying innovative models: Focusing on prevention, self-managed teams, and combining professional care with volunteering and social innovation can help stabilize systems.
- Promoting training: Education must address demographic realities and skill gaps. Mentoring, digital training, and language support for international workers nurture the next generation of professionals and reduce dropouts.
- Increasing regional attractiveness: A welcoming culture, affordable housing, and an improved image of healthcare and social professions are key steps to foster migration and minimize attrition. Awareness campaigns, relocation assistance, and cooperation with municipal authorities are among the suggested measures.
- Improving the organizational climate: Appreciative leadership, healthy working conditions, and the balance of personal life and career are more important to many employees than mere remuneration. Enhancers of retention include a positive work-life balance (which supports employee satisfaction and well-being) and faster application processes.
- Fostering organizational development and innovation capacity: Companies and other entities in the sector must be supported to modernize and innovate through targeted funding and more flexible structures.
International talent is crucial to closing labor gaps in healthcare and social care
Migrant professionals are a vital pillar of the healthcare and social care workforce in Europe and in countries like Germany. However, obstacles like integration barriers and insufficient digitalization hamper their career prospects and make daily life more challenging.
The case of the healthcare staff in Hamburg
WifOR’s interdisciplinary study on the healthcare sector in Hamburg analyses this topic in detail. In Germany’s second largest city, the deficit of skilled workers in this field is rising. By 2040, 1 in every 8 healthcare positions could be unfilled. In the case of doctors and physicians, shortages would almost quadruple in the next 15 years if there were no foreign professionals available.
In this context, the study details ways to counteract negative trends – with a special focus on the much-needed international talent.
- Enhancing integration: Language training, centralized support for bureaucratic processes such as visas, and corporate cultures based on respect and professional recognition are key to integrating internationals into the workforce. This should also be rooted in a broader “welcome culture” in society.
- Promoting digitalization: User-friendly tools and streamlined processes can reduce administrative burdens and free time for essential tasks. However, its success depends on practical design and alignment with real-world workflows.
- Improving conditions: Flexible staffing models, better work-life balance, and reliable mobility options for early and late shifts can enhance employee well-being. Moreover, these measures can help existing personnel increase their working hours.
The importance of healthcare and social care professions
Nurses, early childhood teachers, and doctors, among other professionals, strengthen their communities by providing essential services for development and well-being. They enhance the health and independence of individuals, support vulnerable groups, help to keep populations safe from illness, and aid children in key stages of growth.
A stable society would not be possible without their work. Nevertheless, their contributions and their vital role are often overlooked. Supporting better conditions for healthcare and social care workers is not only fair, but a way to build resilient systems.
Health, a productivity booster to counter labor shortages
Healthy workers are more productive, thereby counteracting some of the negative effects of labor shortages. Employees in good health take fewer sick days, remain in employment for longer, and adapt quickly to changing working conditions.
Yet the positive effects of health go beyond paid labor. Many caregiving activities, such as attending to sick or older relatives, are unpaid and often unrecognized. Promoting better health and care services can ease these non-compensated tasks, which usually fall on women. At the same time, facilitating access to such services would allow women to participate in the workforce more actively.
Conclusion: Solving staff shortages in healthcare and social care requires joint action
Tackling labor shortages in healthcare and social care requires coordinated measures across all levels of policy, education, and practice. The future of care systems in the EU depends on how effectively governments, institutions, and employers can align strategies to find and retain talent, strengthen training, improve working conditions, and harness innovation.
WifOR Institute contributes to solving these challenges by providing the scientific foundation for action. Through studies and data tools, WifOR identifies workforce needs, quantifies shortages, and designs recommendations that support policy reforms. By bridging research and praxis, our institute helps policymakers and organizations to secure the future of healthcare and social care – a key step towards a stronger, more equal, more prosperous Europe.
