Aging population creates health care jobs boom, sector adds 24K in May
As a formerly torrid labor market starts to cool, one area of growth continues to churn out new jobs: Health care.
May’s unexpectedly weak jobs report showed most key employment sectors shedding thousands of jobs. However, health care and social assistance added 24,000 new positions during the month — and nearly 150,000 in the last few months alone.
Still, like the rest of the dour data, the sector’s trend was undeniably weaker during the month. The rate of health care jobs added slowed sharply from March and April, creating less than half of the positions it did in the month prior.
The sector’s white-hot jobs growth is a byproduct of an increasingly greying population, as surging demand for health care creates the need for more jobs to care for the sick and elderly. Last year, the sector outpaced nearly every other area of jobs growth, and created over 300,000 positions.
Last year, the Census Bureau projected that older Americans will outnumber younger ones by the year 2035, when people over 65 are expected to total 78 million.
Those figures are growing at a time when the U.S. is shelling out record sums on health care for what are widely considered to be poorer results. The world’s largest econony spends $3.5 trillion on health care, according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which translates into around 18% of gross domestic product.
Employment in the health care sector is projected to grow 18% by 2026, “much faster than the average for all occupations, adding about 2.4 million new jobs,” according to Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Certain health care jobs are in higher demand than others. Among the hottest jobs are licensed practical nurses, nursing assistants and pharmacy technicians.
--Yahoo Finance’s Adriana Belmonte contributed to this article.
Javier is an editor for Yahoo Finance. Follow Javier on Twitter: @TeflonGeek
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