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A researcher at Columbia University has been pondering a question. How can we keep younger public health workers on the job? NPR's Andrea Hsu explains why that's a pressing question.
ANDREA HSU, BYLINE: Heather Krasna has been concerned about younger workers leaving the public health workforce. Why?
HEATHER KRASNA: People under 35 have been more likely to leave the jobs that they've gotten in local or state government.
HSU: Krasna is associate dean of career and professional development at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health. She says state and local public health workers are the backbone of America's public health system.
KRASNA: These are the folks that are doing things that typical people don't notice and take completely for granted. So when you go and eat at a restaurant, you assume you're not going to die of salmonella poisoning. When you drink water, you assume that there's a system that keeps that water clean.
HSU: Now, Krasna works with data coming out of a national survey of public health workers conducted every three years. She says younger workers come to the field out of a desire to serve their communities, No. 1, and No. 2, for job security. COVID presented a real challenge to the workforce. Now the current political climate does, too, with federal agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention seeing deep cuts and money for state and local agencies also in peril.
KRASNA: They do get a lot of federal funding, and that funding is being cut. And so these roles have been also shaken up.
HSU: With job stability less of a sure thing, Krasna says it's all the more important that state and local governments emphasize good benefits, especially those that younger workers value - flexible schedules, remote work opportunities and access to child care. She notes roughly three-quarters of those 35 and under working in state and local public health are women.
KRASNA: So that's a pretty good explanation of why these particular benefits might be important to people.
HSU: In the private sector, Krasna says, companies often have more flexibility to offer workers bonuses as a retention tool. In the public sector, there are more rules dictating what someone can be paid. Still, she says, state and local agencies should do whatever they can to retain workers, including raising wages where possible.
KRASNA: You know, the thing with public health is that it's really invisible until something goes really wrong.
HSU: She says this is not a workforce you want to lose.
Andrea Hsu, NPR News.
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