Essential or Not? The Critical Need for Human Services Workers
May 2023
From the Providers Council:
According to the report, between 2016 and 2020 employment at human services nonprofits declined 10% while the number of establishments providing human services increased by 11%, emphasizing the difficulty providers have had filling open positions while responding to increased community need.
In addition, the report determined that an estimated 30,000 client-facing positions are vacant in Massachusetts, more than 1 in 6 human services workers are classified as low-income (defined as earning less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level) and the median income of human services workers is just $34,273 – $15,000 less than the median income for the state overall.
