Career Trends: Home Health and Personal Care Aides

Home health aides help people with disabilities, chronic illness, or cognitive impairment with activities of daily living. They often help older adults who need assistance. In some states, home health aides may be able to give a client medication or check the client’s vital signs under the direction of a nurse or other healthcare practitioner.

Home health aides held about 913,500 jobs in 2014. They work in a variety of settings, including clients’ homes, group homes, and day services programs.

There are no formal education requirements for home health aides, but most aides have at least a high school diploma. Home health aides working in certified home health or hospice agencies must complete formal training and pass a standardized test.

Employment of home health aides is projected to grow 38 percent from 2014 to 2024, much faster than the average for all occupations. As the baby-boom population ages and the elderly population grows, demand for the services of home health aides to provide assistance will continue to increase.

This occupation supported 875,100 jobs in 2012 and 913,500 jobs in 2014, reflecting an increase of 4.4%. In 2012, this occupation was projected to increase by 48.5% in 2022 to 1,299,300 jobs. As of 2014, to keep pace with prediction, the expected number of jobs was 959,900, compared with an observed value of 913,500, 4.8% lower than expected. This indicates current employment trends are worse than the 2012 trend within this occupation. In 2014, this occupation was projected to increase by 39.8% in 2024 to 1,261,900 jobs. Linear extrapolation of the 2012 projection for 2022 results in an expected number of 1,384,100 jobs for 2024, 9.7% higher than the 2014 projection for 2024. This indicates expectations for future employment trends are much worse than the 2012 trend within this occupation.