MA Health Care and Human Services Workforce Survey (MHCW)

Overview

Massachusetts health care and human services providers are experiencing unprecedented staffing shortages. Additionally, the lack of diversity in the health care and human services workforce adversely affects the health outcomes of people of color. These distinct but related issues of workforce capacity and diversity have clear consequences for access to care, quality of care, cost, and health outcomes.

The biennial Massachusetts Health Care and Human Services Workforce Survey (MHCW), first fielded in 2023, provides a critical fact base to monitor the racial/ethnic composition, vacancy and turnover rates, and recruitment and retention challenges of staff in key occupations to better inform state policies and programs.

The 2025 MHCW dashboard shows staffing capacity and demographics in 13 key sectors as well as cross-sector statewide information. The interactive dashboard also allows users to explore statewide cross-sector results for 5 key occupations: physicians, registered nurses (RNs), licensed practical nurses (LPNs), direct care workers, and social workers.

Report Materials (February 2026)

Executive Summary (PDF) Databook (Excel) Technical Appendix (PDF)

Interactive Dashboard

(February 2026)

Data Notes

Race/Ethnicity: Due to small cell sizes, American Indian or Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and “two or more races” were aggregated to create a single category of “All Other Races.” Some estimates are not shown due to small cell sizes or insufficient data quality.

Vacancy and Turnover: In sector-specific reporting, vacancy and turnover rates for occupations representing less than 2 percent of the entire sector are not shown, due to small cell sizes. In cross-sector reporting, vacancy and turnover rates were calculated by weighting sector-specific rates by employee population benchmarks to create average population-weighted rates for each occupation.

Rounding: All estimates presented in the dashboard and supporting materials are subject to rounding. Refer to the databook for the most precise estimates.

Previous Publications

Integrated Nursing Dashboard

Delve into nursing workforce trends, including RN and LPN counts, demographics, jobs, pay, training, and hiring challenges.