Assessing Job Quality in Frontline Human Service Jobs: A Four-Decade Analysis (1980-2019)

Background/Purpose: Social workers and counselors compose a significant share of the frontline workforce in various fields of human services, including healthcare, education, and social services. Employment in the frontline human service jobs has increased substantially over the past four decades as the demands for social services rise and diversify. Nevertheless, there is surprisingly limited information on the quality of jobs created. Despite a widespread concern around the quality of human service jobs such as low pay, and erratic work hours, often the donative labor perspective that valorizes workers’ altruistic motivations and a willing acceptance of poor working conditions have precluded practical discussion of the role of institutions and organizations in shaping job quality.

In this study, I consider the macro-structural forces unfolded in the human services field since the 1980s. The shift away from government grants to contracts and vouchers and the entry of for-profit organizations into arenas previously reserved for nonprofits have intensified market competition among human service organizations. As a result, human service organizations today face growing cost-containment pressures while also facing demands to professionalize their staff, which creates conflicting demands between attracting and retaining skilled workers and reducing labor outlays. I examine how various aspects of job quality for frontline human service jobs have evolved in this context of growing demands on human service organizations to “do more with less.”

Methods: Using US Current Population Survey data from 1980-2019, I assess the changes in various dimensions of job quality for frontline human service jobs. Provided that employers use various labor cost-cutting strategies that can affect job quality in different ways, I examine multiple aspects of job quality, including wage, non-wage benefits, overwork, involuntary part-time employment. A series of regression models are estimated to examine the overall trends and the stratification of job quality changes. Specifically, I examine whether the observed trends in job quality are stratified by workers’ educational background, gender, race/ethnicity, and sector of employment (public, for-profit, nonprofit).

Results: Over the past four decades, the human service workforce has grown both in total number and as a share of total employment, driven mainly by an increase in private sector employment, indicating a trend of privatization in the human service field. While there is no clear evidence of a decline in job quality at aggregated levels, my analysis shows that the job quality decline has been disproportionately severe for workers with limited educational backgrounds and workers of color, as well as those in the private sector (both nonprofit and for-profit).

Conclusions/Implications: Through a longitudinal analysis of various dimensions of job quality, the study provides a comprehensive analysis of changes in job quality for frontline human service jobs. The study highlights the importance of understanding the broader structural forces that shape job quality of frontline human service workers and the role of human service organizations in bridging macro structural forces to job quality. The study also underscores the need to address the implications of stratified job quality changes for human service workforce diversity.