NIBJ CONTRIBUTED CONTENT: North Idaho's Aging Workforce Has a Pain Problem — and a Local Solution

Ask a North Idaho business owner what keeps them up at night and you'll hear about hiring, housing, or wages. But in my years practicing pain medicine across our clinics in Sandpoint, Post Falls, Lewiston and Spokane, I've watched a quieter problem shape local payrolls, one that never shows up on a spreadsheet: chronic pain.

The demographics tell the story across all five northern counties. In Kootenai County, the region's economic hub, about 39,000 residents — one in five — are now 65 or older¹. In Bonner County, the share has climbed from 18 percent in 2010 to 27 percent today², and Boundary, Shoshone and Benewah counties run just as high³. Statewide, Idaho's 65-and-older population is projected to grow another 30 percent by 2031⁴. The workforce is aging along with the population — people are working later, and the most experienced employee on a payroll is often the one quietly managing pain.

The CDC puts chronic pain at roughly one in four American adults — 29 percent among 45- to 64-year-olds, the heart of the skilled workforce⁵ — and the cost lands on employers years before it becomes a "senior care" issue. A landmark JAMA study put common pain conditions at more than $61 billion a year in lost productive time⁶ — later national estimates run past $300 billion⁷ — and the surprise was where the money went: over three-quarters came from reduced performance on the job, not missed days. Workers in pain don't always call in sick. They show up and struggle, until the cost surfaces as an early retirement or a disability claim.

For older workers, pain is rarely one simple problem. The machinist with the aching back often also has arthritis in his knees, an old injury or two and some nerve trouble. That's why pain medicine has moved to comprehensive, integrated care: medication management, minimally invasive procedures, physical therapy and behavioral support coordinated as one plan instead of handled piecemeal. That toolkit keeps expanding — regenerative treatments that help the body repair its own tissue, and noninvasive muscle-strengthening technology that rebuilds the strength protecting a back or shoulder from the next injury. Treat the whole picture, and people return to full function faster than one symptom at a time.

I see what that means every week. A patient in her 60s with a vertebral compression fracture, barely able to stand through a shift, can often have a same-day procedure and return to normal activity in days instead of weeks in bed. A nurse whose nerve pain hasn't responded to conservative treatment has real options beyond a lifetime of medication. The goal is always the same: restore function, not manage a symptom indefinitely.

Care like that, available close to home, is becoming a genuine regional advantage. It keeps experienced people on the job longer — on the shop floor, behind the front desk, in the exam room — and makes North Idaho a place where people can choose with confidence to build a career and to grow old. Few investments in our business climate will matter more over the next decade.

J. Sorin Ispirescu, MD is a board-certified anesthesiologist and pain management specialist at Idaho Pain Clinic.

Sources:

¹ USAFacts, "How many people live in Kootenai County, ID?" (2024 data): approximately 39,200 residents aged 65+, or 20.8% of the population. 

² 2010 figure (18%) and 2020 figure (25.9%): Bonner County Planning Department, Comprehensive Plan Update, Population section (April 12, 2023). Current (2024) figure of 27%: USAFacts, Bonner County demographic profile.  

³ USAFacts 2024 county profiles: Boundary County, 23.4% aged 65+; Shoshone County, 23.9% aged 65+. Benewah County 2020 Census figure, 25.1% aged 65+ (U.S. Census Bureau, via Wikipedia).

⁴ Bonner County Planning Department, Comprehensive Plan Update (April 12, 2023), citing Idaho Department of Labor projections: Idaho's 65+ population projected to grow 30.7% by 2031. 

⁵ Lucas JW, Sohi I. "Chronic Pain and High-impact Chronic Pain in U.S. Adults, 2023." NCHS Data Brief No. 518, November 2024 (24.3% of adults overall). Age-group breakdown (29% for ages 45–64) drawn from the same NCHS/NHIS 2023 survey data, as summarized by WebMD.

⁶ Stewart WF, Ricci JA, Chee E, Morganstein D, Lipton R. "Lost Productive Time and Cost Due to Common Pain Conditions in the US Workforce." JAMA. 2003;290(18):2443-2454. $61.2 billion/year; 76.6% of lost productive time attributed to reduced work performance rather than absence. 

⁷ Gaskin DJ, Richard P. "The Economic Costs of Pain in the United States." Journal of Pain. 2012;13(8):715-724. Estimated total incremental cost of pain in the U.S. at $560–635 billion (2010 dollars), with the productivity-related share in the hundreds of billions.