Health Jobs Grow 1.5 Times Faster Than Non-Health Jobs

This morning’s jobs report maintained the trend of high growth in health services, which grew 1.5 times faster than non-health jobs (0.18 percent versus 0.12 percent). With 28,000 jobs added, health services accounted for almost one in six of 178,000 new jobs.

The disproportionately high share of job growth in health services is a deliberate outcome of Obamacare. While this trend persists, it will become increasingly hard to carry out reforms that will improve productivity in the delivery of care.

Ambulatory sites added jobs at a much faster rate than hospitals. This was concentrated in offices of physicians and other practitioners, and outpatient care centers. Physicians' offices alone added seven thousand jobs, more than the six thousand added by hospitals. This is a good sign because hospitals are high-cost locations of care versus doctors’ offices and other ambulatory sites.

See Table I below the fold.

Year on year, the broad trend is similar, with health jobs increasing almost twice as fast as non-health jobs. However, jobs in labs have declined, as have jobs in nursing facilities (Table II).

There was a significant revision adding 61,000 jobs to the previous September estimate. This comprised a downward revision of 10,000 health jobs and an upward revision of 71,000 non-health jobs (Table III).