Projecting health labor market dynamics for a health system in transition: planning for a resilient health workforce in Saudi Arabia

Abstract Background Health workforce planning is critical for health systems to safeguard the ability to afford, train, recruit, and retain the appropriate number and mix of health workers. This balance is especially important when macroeconomic structures are also reforming. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is moving toward greater diversification, privatization, and resiliency; health sectorreform is a key pillar of this transition. Methods We used the Ministry of Health Yearbook data on the number of workers and health expenditures from 2007 to 2018 and projected health labor market supply and demand of workers through 2030, evaluated the potential shortages and surpluses, and simulated different policy scenarios to identify relevant interventions. We further focused on projections for health workers who are Saudi nationals and health worker demand within the public sector (versus the private sector) to inform national objectives of reducing dependency on foreign workers and better deploying public sector resources. Results We projected the overall health labor market to demand 9.07 physicians and nurses per 1,000 population (356,514) in 2030; the public sector will account for approximately 67% of this overall demand. Compared to a projected supply of 10.16 physicians and nurses per 1,000 population (399,354), we estimated an overall modest surplus of about 42,840 physicians and nurses in 2030. However, only about 17% of these workers are estimated to be Saudi nationals, for whom there will be a demand shortage of 287,895 workers. Among policy scenarios considered, increasing work hours had the largest effect on reducing shortages of Saudi workers, followed by bridge programs for training more nurses. Government resources can also be redirected to supporting more Saudi nurses while still ensuring adequate numbers of physicians to meet service delivery goals in 2030. Conclusion Despite projected overall balance in the labor market for health workers in 2030, without policy interventions, severe gaps in the Saudi workforce will persist and limit progress toward health system resiliency in Saudi Arabia. Both supply- and demand-side policy interventions should be considered, prioritizing those that increase productivity among Saudi health workers, enhance training for nurses, and strategically redeploy financial resources toward employing these workers.

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The DEA Method and its Application Possibilities for Measuring Efficiency in the Public Sector—The Case of Local Public Employment Services

Economies ◽

10.3390/economies9020080 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 80

Author(s):

Ewa Cichowicz ◽

Ewa Rollnik-Sadowska ◽

Monika Dędys ◽

Maria Ekes

Keyword(s):

Labor Market ◽

Public Sector ◽

Supply And Demand ◽

Policy Instruments ◽

Public Employment ◽

Employment Services ◽

The Public ◽

Measuring Efficiency ◽

Dea Method ◽

The Unemployed

Public Employment Services (PES) are identified as important institutions in the process of improving the match between supply and demand in the labor market, which, despite their importance, still do not achieve the desired efficiency. The indicated problem is partly due to the lack of appropriate evaluation methods for the applied labor market policy instruments. This paper aims to verify the possibility of using the two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method in measuring the efficiency of public sector entities. The authors focused on 39 PES operating in Mazovia province, Poland in 2019. In the first stage, the model of technical efficiency of local PES included six variables (four inputs and two outputs). Only seven PES obtained full efficiency. The inefficiency of analyzed PES varied from about 1% to 80%. In the second stage, the attention focuses on the relationship between true unknown efficiency and its determinants (five environmental variables, both demand and supply oriented). Then, the regression coefficients and confidence intervals showed that three out of five variables influence the efficiency results, the share of the long-term unemployed, the share of the unemployed under 30, and the share of the unemployed over 50 in the total number of unemployed.

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Correction to: Projecting health labor market dynamics for a health system in transition: planning for a resilient health workforce in Saudi Arabia

Globalization and Health ◽

10.1186/s12992-021-00773-6 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Tracy Kuo Lin ◽

Tim A. Bruckner ◽

Taghred Alghaith ◽

Mariam M. Hamza ◽

Mohammed Alluhidan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Saudi Arabia ◽

Labor Market ◽

Health System ◽

Health Workforce ◽

Transition Planning ◽

Market Dynamics ◽

Labor Market Dynamics

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Health strike is unlikely to shape Kenya national vote

Emerald Expert Briefings ◽

10.1108/oxan-db218220 ◽

2017 ◽

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Public Sector ◽

Health System ◽

Public Health System ◽

Health Workers ◽

Content Type ◽

The Public ◽

General Elections ◽

Slow Progress ◽

National Settlement

Significance Public sector doctors have been on strike since early December citing multiple grievances including pay, conditions at facilities and lack of investment in the public health system. The bitter dispute is the latest in a series of public-sector strikes and comes amid campaigning for August’s general elections. Impacts Agreeing to the strikers' full demands would add pressure for higher salaries in private facilities and the public sector. A national settlement could slow progress towards full devolution of health responsibilities to the counties. Elite segments of society do not rely on the public health system and may be less sympathetic to health workers’ grievances.

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Job Grade and Labor Market Information Effects on Simulated Compensation Decisions

Public Personnel Management ◽

10.1177/009102609602500307 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 25 (3) ◽

pp. 343-350

Author(s):

Bernadette M. Racicot ◽

Dennis Doverspike ◽

Jeffrey S. Hornsby ◽

Neil M.A. Hauenstein

Keyword(s):

Labor Market ◽

Public Sector ◽

Supply And Demand ◽

General Context ◽

Market Information ◽

Job Evaluation ◽

Information Effects ◽

The Public ◽

Market Factors ◽

Market Factor

A study was conducted with personnel managers to examine the relative emphasis placed on job evaluation factors (job grade) and labor market factors (supply and demand of qualified applicants) in determining salary allocation for nine hypothetical job classifications. The results indicated that the job evaluation factors were consistently given more weight than the labor market factor in the salary allocation task. Implications of the findings were discussed within the general context of the problem of defining “market factors” in the public sector.

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Gewerkschaftssterben in Kolumbien

PROKLA Zeitschrift für kritische Sozialwissenschaft ◽

10.32387/prokla.v33i130.676 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 33 (130) ◽

pp. 51-75

Author(s):

Raul Zelik

Keyword(s):

Labor Market ◽

Civil War ◽

Public Sector ◽

Labor Unions ◽

The Public

The persecution of labor unionists by paramilitarian groups, the policy of deregulation of the labor market, and the criminalization of labor unions in the public sector seem to pursue the same strategy, Its aim is the weakening or disappearance of organizations that resist a policy which is friendly to (transnational) capital. The 200 murders that are committed every year against Colombian unionists, in that sense, are not only a result of civil war, The article reads the violence in Colombia as an appearance of globalization process.

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Analysis of Budget Imbalance Dynamics in Kenya

Journal of Economics and Public Finance ◽

10.22158/jepf.v4n4p352 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 4 (4) ◽

pp. 352

Author(s):

Alex Oguso ◽

Francis M. Mwega ◽

Nelson H. Wawire ◽

Purna Samanta

Keyword(s):

Public Sector ◽

Time Series Data ◽

Supply And Demand ◽

Series Data ◽

Fiscal Consolidation ◽

The Public ◽

Distributed Lag ◽

Seeking Behavior ◽

Development Goals ◽

The Government

Kenya needs substantial and sustained fiscal consolidation to create fiscal space for financing the government’s election pledges, the Vision 2030 development projects, and sustainable development goals. However, the government has found it hard to sustain its fiscal consolidation attempts. This study investigates the fiscal consolidation constraints that act through the budget imbalance dynamics in Kenya using the Olivera-Tanzi effect approach. The study covers the period 2000-2015 using time series data and employs three Auto-regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) error correction models in the analysis. The study showed that a rise in the general price levels in the economy, adjustment of minimum wages, rise in perceived levels of corruption in the public sector and the political budget cycles (occurrence of a general election) worsen the budget imbalances (deficits) thus constrain fiscal consolidation efforts in Kenya. The study also demonstrated that budget imbalance dynamics in Kenya could partly be explained by the Olivera-Tanzi proposition. The study recommends measures to reduce the fiscal imbalance gap in Kenya, which include controlling both supply and demand side inflationary pressure and dealing with rent seeking behavior in the public sector.

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Analysis of Cutback Management Strategy in Financial Sustainability in the Public Sector in Indonesia

Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Studies ◽

10.47191/jefms/v4-i9-18 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 04 (09) ◽

Author(s):

Rafiqah Humaira ◽

Keyword(s):

Public Sector ◽

Supply And Demand ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Financial Sustainability ◽

Public Agencies ◽

The Public ◽

Study Approach ◽

Cutback Management ◽

Directorate General

There are many literature reviews that write about the causes and expected consequences of an environmental, social, and economic crisis. It should be remembered that the role of the public sector is critical to overcoming crises, to promoting sustainable development and to managing the balance between supply and demand for public services. This qualitative research takes a case study approach to public agencies under the Ministry of Finance, namely the Directorate General of Customs and Excise. This study aims to explain financial sustainability in public bodies during the COVID-19 pandemic, and explain cutback management strategies indicated through refocusing carried out by government agencies during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as explain the relationship between cutback management and financial sustainability which is significantly directly related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of the analysis show that there are differences in the financial sustainability of Customs and Excise during the pandemic, namely in terms of state revenues, it certainly changes (decreases) in terms of tax revenues, import duties, and excise. Then identified indicators of cutback strategies at Customs and Excise, and there is a conceptual link between financial sustainability, the COVID-19 pandemic and cutback management strategies.

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Exodus of Clinicians from Public Sector to Non-Clinical Practice in Private Sector in Dar es Salaam Tanzania; Exploring the Drivers

Tanzania Medical Journal ◽

10.4314/tmj.v31i2.378 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 31 (2) ◽

pp. 45-58

Author(s):

Elice Temu ◽

Gasto Frumence ◽

Nathanael Sirili

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Clinical Practice ◽

Public Sector ◽

Private Sector ◽

Work Environment ◽

Health Workforce ◽

Health Sector ◽

Dar Es Salaam ◽

Medical Doctors ◽

The Public

Background: Globally, shortage of clinicians health workforce is among the major challenges facing the health systems of many countries including Tanzania. Migration of medical doctors from clinical practice to non-clinical practice partly contributes to this challenge. This study aimed to explore factors influencing Medical Doctors’ decision to migrate from clinical practice in the public sector to non-clinical practice in the private sector in Dar es Salaam Tanzania.Methods: An exploratory qualitative study was conducted using 12 in-depth interviews with medical doctors working in the private sector but formerly worked in the public health sector. Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed verbatim and thematically analyzed.Results: Three main themes emerged; health system-level drivers that has three sub-themes, namely poor work environment, heavy workload due to shortage of clinicians and underfunded public health sector; individual-level drivers, which include four sub-themes: Age, area of specialization, marital status and empathy to patients; and external environment drivers consisting of two sub-themes: peer pressure and community culture.Conclusion: Improving the work environment through increased funding will partly address the main health system drivers underlying migration from the clinical practice. Furthermore, nurturing junior doctors to be enthusiastic and adapting to cultural shocks can partly help to address the individual and external drivers. Keywords: Shortage, Medical Doctors, Clinicians, Physicians, migration, health workforce, Tanzania Clinical Practice, Non-Clinical Practice.

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Employment targeting in a frictional labor market

Indian Growth and Development Review ◽

10.1108/igdr-06-2018-0065 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 242-262 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Chetan Ghate ◽

Debojyoti Mazumder

Keyword(s):

Labor Market ◽

Public Sector ◽

Private Sector ◽

Informal Sector ◽

Developing Economies ◽

Job Creation ◽

Friction Model ◽

Search And Matching ◽

Content Type ◽

The Public

Purpose Governments in both developing and developed economies play an active role in labor markets in the form of providing both formal public sector jobs and employment through public workfare programs. The authors refer to this as employment targeting. The purpose of the paper is to consider different labor market effects of employment targeting in a stylized model of a developing economy. In the context of a simple search and matching friction model, the authors show that the propensity for the public sector to target more employment can increase the unemployment rate in the economy and lead to an increase in the size of the informal sector. Design/methodology/approach The model is an application of a search and matching model of labor market frictions, where agents have heterogeneous abilities. The authors introduce a public sector alongside the private sector in the economy. Wage in the private sector is determined through Nash bargaining, whereas the public sector wage is exogenously fixed. In this setup, the public sector hiring rate influences private sector job creation and hence the overall employment rate of the economy. As an extension, the authors model the informal sector coupled with the other two sectors. This resembles developing economies. Then, the authors check the overall labor market effects of employment targeting through public sector intervention. Findings In the context of a simple search and matching friction model with heterogeneous agents, the authors show that the propensity for the public sector to target more employment can increase the unemployment rate in the economy and lead to an increase in the size of the informal sector. Employment targeting can, therefore, have perverse effects on labor market outcomes. The authors also find that it is possible that the private sector wage falls as a result of an increase in the public sector hiring rate, which leads to more job creation in the private sector. Originality/value What is less understood in the literature is the impact of employment targeting on the size of the informal sector in developing economies. The authors fill this gap and show that public sector intervention can have perverse effects on overall job creation and the size of the informal sector. Moreover, a decrease in the private sector wage due to a rise in public sector hiring reverses the consensus findings in the search and matching literature which show that an increase in public sector employment disincentivizes private sector vacancy postings.

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The funding status of retiree health plans in the public sector

Journal of Pension Economics and Finance ◽

10.1017/s1474747211000059 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 291-314 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

ROBERT L. CLARK ◽

MELINDA SANDLER MORRILL

Keyword(s):

Labor Market ◽

Health Insurance ◽

Public Sector ◽

Private Sector ◽

Accounting Standards ◽

Health Plans ◽

The Public ◽

Government Accounting ◽

Retirement Benefit ◽

Unfunded Liabilities

AbstractWhile no longer common in the private sector, most public sector employers offer retiree health insurance (RHI) as a retirement benefit to their employees. While these plans are thought to be an important tool for employers to attract, retain, motivate, and ultimately retire workers, they represent a large and growing cost. This paper reviews what is currently known about RHI in the public sector, while highlighting many important unanswered questions. The analysis is informed by data produced in accordance with the 2004 Government Accounting Standards Board Rule 45 (GASB 45). We consider the extent of the unfunded liabilities states face and explore what factors may explain the variation in liabilities across states. The importance and sustainability of RHI plans in the public sector ultimately depend on how workers view and value this post-retirement benefit, yet little is known about how RHI directly impacts the public sector labor market. We conclude with a discussion of the future of RHI plans in the public sector.

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