Public Health Careers at a Crossroad

The landscape of public health employment is becoming increasingly unpredictable. While the demand for public health expertise remains high, the job market is changing. Despite the continued presence of governmental public health, the future feels uncertain to many. 

Recent funding cuts, including reductions in research funding, freezes on grants, mass layoffs, cancellations of training programs, and decreased institutional capacity at federal public health and research agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Institutes of Health, have changed the landscape of public health employment and academic programs. National effects cascade downward, influencing state budgets and precipitating layoffs, hiring freezes, and reduced opportunities at the local level as well. 

These dynamics put significant pressure on the labor market and restrict opportunities. Public health professionals at all career stages are experiencing prolonged job searches, fewer openings, and intense competition. Recent graduates encounter new barriers to entering traditional governmental public health jobs. Today’s landscape calls for flexibility and a willingness to explore a broader range of career pathways.

While traditional roles may be harder to access, public health professionals are finding meaningful opportunities to apply their skills in other sectors and settings. 

• • • Educational institutions rely on their expertise to promote health and wellness and mental health in schools. 
    • Housing and community development organizations seek support in advancing healthy housing initiatives, supportive housing and complete communities. 
    • Private sector firms look for guidance in developing digital health platforms, designing healthier workplaces, and addressing workforce well-being.

For early career professionals, this shifting landscape can feel like a crossroads: eager to advance, yet navigating a rapidly evolving job market. The good news is that the public health skillset is highly valued, transferable, and lasting. Public health is knowledge work–drawing on data analysis, program evaluation, health communication, and systems thinking–that can be applied in a range of contexts.

Even with expanding opportunities for those with public health skillsets, navigating a labor market characterized by disruption and change is difficult and can be disheartening. Funding cuts, hiring freezes, and shifting priorities are making public health career paths less straightforward. Yet public health professionals can carry forward their commitment to improving health and advancing equity into new arenas. Public health careers are grounded in purpose. Whether working in governmental public health, healthcare, education, housing, community development, or the private sector, public health professionals can be agents of positive change in our communities–safeguarding and strengthening the public’s health