COVID-19 may have shattered the assumption that healthcare is recession-proof, but a new report from commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield predicts that demand for medical space will be resilient, GlobeSt.com reported Dec. 11.
Five key insights:
1. Consumer spending in healthcare dropped at a 54 percent annual rate when the coronavirus pandemic took hold this past spring, causing a steep drop in providers' revenue and a record employment decline of nearly 10 percent.
2. The outpatient sector has largely recovered since the second quarter, when employment was down 8.1 percent, but overall healthcare employment is still below its pre-recession level.
3. Sixty-three percent of all healthcare jobs lost during the recession had been recovered as of October, compared to 54 percent of all U.S. jobs.
4. Consumer spending in healthcare remains 7 percent below where it was at the end of 2019.
5. With an aging and expanding population expected to drive demand for medical services at the fastest rate in history, CMS projects a $1.9 trillion increase in U.S. healthcare spending from 2020-27.