Category(s):
Economy and Labour
Status: Active
Principal: Ted McDonald
Project Number: P0137
Year Approved: 2024
The shortage of social workers is expected to be problematic in New Brunswick for the foreseeable future. According to the New Brunswick Association of Social Workers (NBASW), the gap between available services and demand could continue to widen in coming years, with a projected shortage of 272 social workers in the province by 2030. That figure is likely an underestimate since it was found pre-COVID-19; the pandemic has only exacerbated the shortage.
This proposal aims to identify the factors associated with the employment and retention of social workers in New Brunswick in order to provide more insight into the future availability of social workers in the province. The analysis will also provide a framework for future analysis of the health and wellness of social workers as a contributing factor to retention. An NBASW survey of social workers from 2022 showed that 16.67% of respondents “strongly agree” they were at or near burnout, with another 28.42% of respondents answering they “agree” to feeling at or near burnout. Cases of depression were especially high among Canadian social workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The stresses associated with the profession could potentially impact the shortage as more workers leave the province or the profession altogether. The NBASW survey also showed that 57.01% felt it was “extremely important” to “recruit social workers in/to New Brunswick.” Successful recruiting strategies would lighten the workload of existing social workers.
A recent study about social worker graduate retention in New Brunswick took descriptive approaches to quantify retention rates by different genders, schools, and geography. The retention rates for university-educated social workers were found to be higher than the overall retention rate of all graduates. The proposed work of this new project will expand on the descriptive approach by modelling retention rates with quantitative analyses using variables associated with individual social workers, and as available, social service community workers with community college educations. The effectiveness of recruitment will be examined through education, employment and registration data for social workers and social service community workers (if available) by assessing the rate at which graduates stay in New Brunswick to work. Additionally, the quantity of social workers recruited from out-of-province (those that did not attend New Brunswick post-secondary institutions) will be traced.
