Enumeration of the State Public Health Workforce using the 2010 ASTHO Profile Survey

This study will report on the findings from the Workforce module of the ASTHO 2010 Profile Survey, including the number of full time equivalent employees (FTE) and an enumeration of 15 subcategories of state health workers. Presenter(s) will highlight changes in the state public health workforce since the 2007 ASTHO State Public Health Workforce Survey. The ASTHO 2010 Profile survey was administered online to state and territorial health officials and their staff from the 50 states, eight territories and DC in April 2010. By November 2010, the survey was completed by 50 states, DC and 2 territories generating a 100% response rate among states and DC, and a 90% response rate among all potential respondents. The total FTEs reported by state health agencies dropped by 12% from 120,134 reported in 2007 to 105,692 in 2010, and average FTEs employed by state health agencies decreased by 22.5% from 2,731 in 2007 to 2,114 in 2010. Administrative and clerical personnel made up the largest portion of the state health agency workforce (34%) in 2007 and continue to in 2010 (17.5%) followed by public health nurses (25% in 2007 and 10.6% in 2010). Presenter(s) will also describe the impact of state budget cuts (as reported in ASTHO's Budget Cuts Survey) on the workforce which indicate that 87% of all state and territorial health agencies have experienced job losses since July 2008 as a result of budget cuts.