IN THE NEWS TODAY
Thursday, October 1, 2026
RESEARCH & DATA
America’s Growing Direct-Care Worker Shortage Prompts Proposal for New Immigration Pathway
America’s rapidly aging population is widening an already serious shortage of workers who provide essential care to older adults and people with disabilities. About 1.28 million additional direct-care workers will be needed by 2036—a roughly 35% increase from today’s workforce—as the population age 65 and older grows from 65.6 million to 77.5 million. Low wages, difficult working conditions, recruitment challenges, and high turnover are already contributing to understaffing and unmet home-care needs.
Against that backdrop, economist Dr. Tara Watson proposes an H-1D visa, a temporary employment-based immigration pathway for experienced direct-care workers. Watson argues that improving wages and working conditions is essential but is unlikely by itself to produce enough workers to meet rapidly growing demand. Her proposal would therefore use targeted immigration as one component of a broader strategy to expand and stabilize the direct-care workforce, rather than as a substitute for improving direct-care jobs.
View an overview of the proposal via IIIRP’s infographics below:
IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION FACT OF THE DAY
IIIRP measures immigrant economic integration across seven outcomes: personal income, poverty, unemployment, full-time employment, working poverty, homeownership and severe rent burden.
The analysis covers working-age New Yorkers across the state’s regions and counties using ACS data from 2012–2021.
Source: IIIRP Data Gateway | U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey