Like many OECD countries, Germany is currently facing a shortage of long-term care (LTC) workers. This situation is concerning in the context of the ageing of the German population. A potential reason why Germany fails to recruit and retain LTC workers is that LTC jobs are particularly demanding (physical and psychological strain) which may be harmful to health. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence demonstrating this effect. This article fills the gap in the literature by exploring to what extent LTC jobs reduce workers’ health over time. We estimate a dynamic panel data model on the German Socio-Economic Panel (v.35; 1984–2018), which allows adressing selection issues into occupations. Our paper provides innovative findings on the impact of LTC occupations on workers’ health. We confirm that LTC jobs have a negative impact on self-reported health. Our results have strong policy implications: we emphasize the need to provide sufficient assistance to LTC workers, who are at risk of facing more health issues than other workers. This issue is key to increase the attractiveness of LTC jobs and reduce turnover in the LTC workforce.

与许多经合组织国家一样，德国目前面临着长期护理 (LTC) 工人短缺的问题。这种情况在德国人口老龄化的背景下令人担忧。德国未能招聘和留住 LTC 工人的一个潜在原因是 LTC 工作要求特别高（身体和心理压力），这可能对健康有害。然而，缺乏证明这种影响的经验证据。本文通过探讨长期护理工作在多大程度上降低工人的健康，填补了文献中的空白。我们估计了德国社会经济小组 (v.35; 1984–2018) 上的动态面板数据模型，该模型允许将选择问题纳入职业。我们的论文提供了关于 LTC 职业对工人健康影响的创新发现。我们确认 LTC 工作对自我报告的健康有负面影响。我们的结果具有很强的政策含义：我们强调需要为 LTC 工人提供足够的帮助，他们比其他工人面临更多健康问题的风险。这个问题是提高 LTC 工作吸引力和减少 LTC 劳动力流动的关键。