This paper characterizes burnout among state and local governmental public health workers and identifies implications for public health workforce capacity and sustainability.

While there is a growing recognition of the need to consider rurality in public health, our understanding of the rural local public health workforce nationally remains narrow, in part due to gaps in available data and analyses.  Notably, variation in how rurality is defined represents a longstanding challenge for both public health research and practice, especially in public health, where jurisdictional boundaries differ. However, data on the rural public health workforce are increasingly available. National data from the Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS) are pivotal in characterizing the local public health workforce, yet data specific to small and rural LHDs were limited until recently. In the most recent iteration of PH WINS in 2024, agencies of all sizes across the country were eligible to participate, making this the first national dataset representing the rural public health workforce.

The purpose of the current study is to use PH WINS 2024 data to provide the first national description of the rural local public health workforce across the United States, with a focus on demographic, educational, and positional characteristics, as well as intentions to stay or leave their organizations.

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The January/February 2023 Journal of Public Health Management and Practice Supplement (Vol. 29, Issue S1)1 presents findings from the 2021 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS). The supplement provides insight into governmental public health workforce dynamics.  This commentary serves as an introduction providing insight into how the findings compare to broader US labor market trends and potential implications in light of current labor market uncertainty.

Although the public health workforce is acknowledged to be much broader, research on the workforce focuses almost exclusively on local, state, tribal, or territorial governmental health departments. Previous constructs of the public health workforce in the United States have acknowledged that individuals in many sectors contribute to public health, including “those who work for official public health agencies at all levels of government, community-based and voluntary organizations with a health promotion focus, the public health-related staff of hospitals and health care systems, and a range of others in private industry, government, and the voluntary sector.

This article proposes a new, intersectional definition of the public health workforce in the United States based on services provided.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is rapidly changing the way Human Resources (HR) professionals perform their jobs. Changes to HR technology in talent acquisition, or recruitment, processes are being implemented across myriad industries. These processes may include the building of job descriptions, candidate sourcing, job application, resume scanning and ranking, and interview planning and scheduling. This review explores the benefits and challenges of Artificial Intelligence use in Human Resources, with a focus on recruitment processes.

In 2024, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists suggested approaches, including upskilling and recruitment/hiring, to strengthen the workforce capacity in public health data science. We estimated the number of recently graduated data scientists who might be eligible for and potentially hirable into government public health jobs as a step toward filling data gaps in workforce planning.

Governmental public health workers age 35 or younger have been shown to experience lower retention rates than older workers. Salaries are often a factor in retention, but because health departments sometimes face restrictions in improving salaries, health departments might explore offering nontraditional benefits to attract and retain workers.  This study analyzes data from the 2024 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS) to determine whether nontraditional benefits are more highly valued by younger workers than older workers.

This study applies machine learning techniques to examine the predictors of turnover intent and to simulate the impact of workplace satisfaction improvements among state health agency employees.

This paper characterizes the national landscape of student loan debt for state and local public health staff and considers the potential roles of loan forgiveness and repayment in workforce development.

Healthcare and behavioral health professionals employed by local, state, and federal governments are essential to maintaining public health infrastructure, ensuring access to care, and responding to emergencies. Despite their importance, limited research has examined how recent policy, budgetary, and labor market changes are influencing their employment stability and retention within government sectors. This study used longitudinal data from the Current Population Survey (2015-2025) to examine employment transitions among government-employed healthcare and behavioral health workers.

Community-oriented workers are essential to the delivery of population-based services across state and local health department systems, as they are often the frontline providers of culturally responsive care, outreach, and health education in underserved communities. This infographic describes the distribution, employment trends, and other data related to these workers in state and local health departments.

Public health nurses (PHNs) are one of the largest public health occupation groups, bringing important expertise to the activities of public health; however, their roles and distribution differ across the country. The objective of this study was to estimate the relative need for, supply of, and priority areas for PHNs at the county level.