As if 10 months of pandemic hasn’t been enough,

Senior-living facilities have persevered in battling COVID-19 since March 2020, updating facilities and processes designed to keep patients and staff safe as the coronavirus has surged nationwide. Unfortunately, the impact of COVID-19 on facilities, staff and operations is far from over.

Senior living industry experts participating on an Argentum panel looking at senior living’s economic forecast say that an unprecedented global pandemic could leave its mark through 2022, according to McKnight’s Senior Living. Panelists reviewed trends in the industry’s three biggest cost drivers: workforce, food and utilities. 

According to Argentum’s 2021 Forecast Report, the economy was still 10.7 million jobs down from pre-coronavirus levels as of September, with full recovery unlikely until 2022. And although the total number of jobs in the senior living industry declined in 2020, the number of hours worked by employees is trending higher.

Within the senior living industry, continuing care retirement communities were hit the hardest. Also known as life plan communities, they lost jobs at a rate of 2.5 percent, whereas assisted living jobs declined 0.8 percent during the first eight months of 2020.

Click here to read the article.