What does the psychology workforce look like? In July, APA's Center for Workforce Studies (CWS) released a report to address that question. The report paints a picture of demographic trends in the field from 2005 to 2013, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau's annual American Community Survey.
Though the report paints that picture in relatively broad brushstrokes, it provides an important first step toward a more complete understanding of psychology's workforce. Precise workforce data help policymakers, educators and the public understand the range of psychology's impact on society and can help determine the resources necessary to support them, says Ronald Rozensky, PhD, a professor of clinical and health psychology at the University of Florida and a longtime advocate of workforce analysis.
"Accurate workforce data are really important to use when advocating for education, training, scientific funding and reimbursement for practice," he says.
The new report analyzed data from the approximately 83,000 individuals who listed their occupation as "psychologist" and reported having a professional degree (such as an MD, DDS or JD) or doctoral degree (such as a PhD or EdD) in any field. From 2005 to 2013, the supply of active psychologists remained fairly stable, the authors found, with enough new psychologists entering the field to compensate for an increase in the number of retired psychologists over that span.
That workforce was not evenly distributed, however. California, New York and Pennsylvania have the largest numbers of active psychologists. In fact, those three states together account for a third of the workforce. Western and Southern states tended to have the lowest numbers of active psychologists.
