Financial wellness and retirement readiness among healthcare sector employees Impact of COVID-19

October 2020

Many healthcare sector employees have made changes to their retirement saving and investments since the onset of COVID-19. Nonetheless, confidence in the amount they are saving and in the investment of their savings has been shaken.

Summary

COVID-19 and its economic consequences have impacted various elements of retirement readiness among workers in the healthcare sector—saving amounts, investment allocations, decision-making confidence, and expected retirement ages. The 2020 Healthcare Sector Financial Wellness Survey provides insights into these dynamics and other aspects of personal finance among the sector’s workforce.

Key Insights

Forty-six percent of healthcare workers report that their overall financial condition has worsened since the onset of COVID-19; 27% of these expect further worsening over the next year.

Twenty-three percent of retirement savers have decreased the amount they are saving, with 7% stopping saving completely. On the other hand, 14% have increased the amount they are saving.

Twenty-nine percent have become less confident that they are saving an adequate amount for retirement.

Almost 30% of retirement savers have changed the investment allocation of their retirement savings—19% decreased the share in equities, 9% increased it.

Twenty-six percent have become less confident that they are investing their retirement savings appropriately.

Only 22% think they will annuitize any of their retirement savings, while 54% are unsure, even though annuitization would address healthcare workers’ top financial priorities for retirement.

Methodology

The survey was fielded online from May 21 to June 11, 2020. Five occupation groups were surveyed with a total sample size of 1,203 respondents: registered nurses (300), physicians and surgeons (300), other medical professionals (300), office and administrative staff (200), and non-medical professionals (103). Responses were weighted based on Occupational Employment Statistics (May 2018), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Since the onset of COVID-19, 38% of healthcare workers have become less confident that they will have enough money to live comfortably throughout retirement.