The Greater Grand Rapids’ health care labor market and accompanying real wages in select occupations are a “beacon of light” at a time when Michigan’s job growth is lagging, a study by a pair of economic professors concludes.
Co-authors Cody Kirby, visiting economics professor at Grand Valley State University’s Seidman College of Business, and Daniel Montanera, an assistant professor of economics there, say Grand Rapids leads the nation in the growth of health care support and technical occupations.
Fifteen health care occupations have reported job growth above 100%, with the highest growth rates including pediatricians, occupational therapy assistants, physical therapy assistants, physician assistants, and home health and personal care aides.
“We’re seeing a prosperous move in the future in terms of health care employment,’ Kirby says. “I’m assuming it’s good pay and the ease of finding a job. If you get a degree in one of the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), it’s easier to find a job and attract that job with higher pay.”
In comparison, Michigan’s job growth fell 23 percent from 2005 to April 2020 and did not return to its 2005 level until August 2022.
Compensation declines
However, while Grand Rapids-area hospital-based employment is rising, payroll, benefits, and compensation per employee have fallen year to year.
“We took that as good news as well,” Montanera says. “Grand Rapids seems to attract hospital-based employees without having to break the bank in order to do it.”
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Dr. Ronald Grifka
Keeping personnel from moving elsewhere in a time of rising wages is key to maintaining proper staffing levels, says Dr. Ronald Grifka, president of Wyoming-based University of Michigan Health-West, which has around 2,500 medical and nonmedical employees.
"There's a little more of a bidding war, not just in medicine but in all areas,” he says. “We’ve got a number of employees who work here, their parents worked here, and for some, their grandparents worked here. We want them to know they are appreciated and wanted, and we do what we can to keep them invested and give them a great work experience.
The hospital began offering more advanced specialized treatment when it became affiliated with the University of Michigan, and that required hiring people in those specialty fields.
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Photo courtesy of UM Health-West.UM Health-West is based in Wyoming.
“The positions that we brought in required nurses and technicians with advanced training, and because of that, we’ve had a bit of hiring increase,” Grifka says. “We’re getting patients referred to us and, because of their advanced diseases, we’ve hired more people than we ever did before.”
Growth not universal
Not all health care employment trends are positive. One downside is increased “backfilling,” which is hiring personnel with less experience when a current employee with more experience resigns or retires.
“It’s not clear to me why we’re not seeing that in our comparison communities,” Montanera says. “I don’t understand why that would only be in Grand Rapids.”
Also, not all health care occupations in Grand Rapids have grown since 2005. For example, the number of medical transcriptionists, licensed practical nurses, family medicine physicians, nuclear medicine technologists, and opticians all declined more than 10%.
Some of that changed in 2024, when family medicine physicians and opticians posted local job growth numbers exceeding 10%. However, medical transcriptionists and licensed practical nurses still face mounting job losses.
Real earnings in select health care occupations increased more than 7% in Grand Rapids between 2005 and 2023. Those jobs include medical records specialists, health technologists and technicians, physical therapy assistants, occupational therapy assistants, nursing aides and assistants, audiologists, and licensed practical and vocational nurses. On average, these occupations saw an increase in earnings locally that outpaced real earnings at the state and national levels.
However, since 2005, 17 health care occupations in local labor markets have had declines in real earnings exceeding 7%, increasing the difficulty in finding and retaining talented practitioners. But real earnings in 10 of those 17 fields rose in 2024.
Aging population a concern
The uptick in certain health care fields is driven by an aging population that impacts West Michigan more than the east side of state.
Kirby and Montanera say they are finding evidence of a migration from the east side of the state to West Michigan, with the population declining in Detroit by 0.19% and growing in Kent, Ottawa, Muskegon, and Allegan counties (KOMA) by 0.52%.
Throughout the 1990s and again in 2013, population growth in West Michigan was at least 1.26%. While the growth rate in 2023 fell below its historical average, it continues to outpace the national average of 0.48%.
A significant concern for health planners is that the proportion of persons over 65 has increased in KOMA to 16.7%, and 18.1% in
Detroit, Michigan, with a notable tilt occurring around the Great Recession of 2007. In 2023, the 65-plus demographic made up 16.7% of the KOMA population and 18.1% in Detroit.
The aging population has health care professionals concerned about acquiring the resources needed to meet the elevated demand for health care now and in the future, the report says.