Pulse issue · May 9, 2026
The Fed Sees a Care Workforce That Can't Grow Fast Enough
Women's labor force participation is at all-time highs. Immigration is constrained. The math doesn't work.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City published an uncomfortable finding this month: the two labor pools that built America's care workforce are both tapped out. Healthcare employment has grown about 2.2 percent annually since 2011, accelerating to nearly 5 percent in 2024, with care aides leading the surge. But women, who fill most of these roles, have pushed labor force participation to all-time highs. There is no slack left. And immigration, the other major source of care workers, is "expected to remain constrained," the Kansas City Fed wrote.
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