Registered nurses (RNs), licensed practical nurses (LPNs), and certified nursing assistants (CNAs) comprised 15.8%, 3.0%, and 12.4%, respectively, of health care employment.
The number of LPNs declined from 706 in 2006Q1 to 660 in 2008Q1 (see Table 2). The decline in the number of LPNs 55 years of age and younger was responsible for the employment change.
Table 3 shows that CNA employment increased from 2,675 in 2006Q1 to 2,725 in 2008Q1.
RN tenure was 5.2 years in 2008Q1 compared to 4.1 years for LPNs and 3.1 years for CNAs.
The average ages of RNs, LPNs, and CNAs in 2008Q1 were 44.5, 44.9, and 35.7 respectively (see Figure 4).
Average RN earnings were 2.6 times those of CNAs and 1.7 times those of LPNs in 2006Q1. By 2008Q1, these ratios were 2.5 and 1.7 respectively.
Ambulatory Health Care Services
The RN exit rate (9.6%; see Table 4 and Figure 5) was the lowest of the three license types in 2007Q4. LPN average tenure was the highest in 2007Q4 (3.3 years; see Table 5 and Figure 6).
Table 4, Table 5, and Table 6 indicate that the rate of multiple jobholding for RNs in 2008Q1 was 20.8% compared to 15.9% for LPNs and 25.5% for CNAs. Comparative results for hospitals were 2.3%, 9.6%, and 14.5% respectively (see Table 7, Table 8, and Table 9) and 14.9%, 12.0%, and 18.8%, respectively, for nursing & residential care facilities (see Table 10, Table 11, and Table 12).
RNs, LPNs, and CNAs comprised 16.7% of industry employment in 2008Q1 (see Figure 12), compared to 43.4% in hospitals (see Figure 13), and 32.6% in nursing & residential care facilities (see Figure 14).
The proportion of RNs 55 years of age and older increased from 18.4% in 2006Q1 to 21.5% in 2008Q1 (see Table 4). The same proportion in 2008Q1 was 25.6% for LPNs (see Table 5) and 8.8% for CNAs (see Table 6).
Pay growth for continuous licensees was the fastest in ambulatory health care services. The rate of increase for RNs was 22.5%, LPNs was 17.4%, and CNAs was 19.8% (see Table 4, Table 5, and Table 6).
Hospitals
In 2006Q1, 16.1% of RNs were 55 years of age or older. This proportion increased to 19.4% by 2008Q1 (see Table 7).
The number of LPNs declined from 293 in 2006Q1 to 271 in 2008Q1 (see Table 8).
CNAs' proportion of employment increased from 13.8% in 2006Q1 to 13.9% in 2008Q1 (see Table 9). RNs' proportion of employment increased 0.6% during the same period (see Table 7).
The number of CNAs between 25 and 34 years of age increased 15.5% between 2006Q1 and 2008Q1. In the same age group and time period, the number of RNs increased 16.8% and the number of LPNs declined 22.8%.
Earnings for continuously employed CNAs grew the slowest in hospitals (5.8%), but CNA wage growth was greater than the growth rate for RNs (5.1%) and LPNs (5.8%; see Table 7, Table 8, and Table 9).
Workers' Compensation claims rates for CNAs were nearly double those for RNs and LPNs (see Table 7, Table 8, and Table 9). CNA claims rates were greater in hospitals than in both nursing & residential care facilities and ambulatory health care services (see Table 3, Table 6, Table 9, Figure 16, Figure 17, and Figure 18).
Nursing & Residential Care Facilities
Figure 3 shows that although the number of CNAs declined, their average tenure remained relatively constant (see Figure 8). This may indicate a proportionally equal loss of both high- and low-tenured CNAs in 2008Q1.
There were 3.2 times as many CNAs as RNs, and 4.2 times as many CNAs as LPNs working in 2008Q1 (see Table 10, Table 11, and Table 12).
CNA employment declined by 145 between 2006Q1 and 2008Q1. RN and LPN employment declined by 12 and 35, respectively, during the same period.
Pay for continuous licensees grew fastest for CNAs (16.5%) from 2006Q1 to 2008Q1 compared to 8.6% for RNs and 8.2% for LPNs (see Table 10, Table 11, and Table 12).
Industry/Primary Industry – the industry in which licensed professionals earned the most wages each quarter.
Primary Employer – the employer who paid the most wages to a worker in a quarter.
Active RNs, LPNs, or CNAs – the count of licensed professionals who worked in ambulatory health care services, hospitals, or nursing & residential care facilities.
Total Employment – the count of all workers whose primary industry was ambulatory health care services, hospitals, or nursing & residential care facilities.
Multiple Jobholders – the number of licensed professionals paid wages by two or more employers during a quarter.
Workers’ Compensation Claims – the number of workplace injuries reported to Workers’ Compensation each quarter for RNs, LPNs, and CNAs.
Continuous Employees – the number of licensed professionals whose primary industry was ambulatory health care services, hospitals, or nursing & residential care facilities for three consecutive quarters.
Average Wages Continuous Employees – gross quarterly average wages paid to each continuously employed licensed professional.
Tenure – the number of consecutive quarters each licensed professional worked for the same primary employer, allowing for three quarter breaks.
Exit Rate Percentage – the number of licensed professionals whose primary industry was ambulatory health care services, hospitals, or nursing & residential care facilities during the prior quarter and current quarter, but not in the following quarter.
ND (Not Disclosable) – if the number of Workers’ Compensation claims was fewer than five in a quarter, the results were suppressed for confidentiality reasons.
North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Codes – in this report we refer to ambulatory health care services (NAICS 621; includes physicians' offices, outpatient surgical centers, and medical labs), hospitals (NAICS 622; includes general medical & surgical hospitals and specialty hospitals), and nursing & residential care facilities (NAICS 623; includes residential mental health & substance abuse facilities and homes for the elderly).
Data sources: Workers’ Compensation Claims data – June 30, 2008; Board of Nursing license file – July 2, 2008; Wage Records database – July 9, 2008; Enhanced Quarterly Unemployment Insurance data – July 29, 2008.
