For Better or Worse, Health Care Is America's Employment Engine

SelfRugger · 2026-02-13T20:51:34+00:00

Health care is now the leading sector for job growth in the U.S., housing over 18 million workers compared to manufacturing's 12 million. While manufacturing jobs decline, health care employment continues to rise, reflecting a shift in the economy driven by an aging population and automation effects.

SelfRugger

2026-02-13 20:51:34

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For Better or Worse, Health Care Is America’s Employment Engine

Off The Charts: The Visual Says It All

_The health care workforce is growing steadily as the American population ages. _

Raquel Natalicchio / Houston Chronicle via Getty Images

Diccon Hyatt

Sat, February 14, 2026 at 4:07 AM GMT+9 1 min read

Key Takeaways

Manufacturing, once the largest employer in the U.S. economy, has shed jobs consistently since 2022. Health care has gained them.

The two sectors have been on opposite trajectories since 2008, when health care employment first exceeded manufacturing.

If you want to picture a typical American worker, forget the overalls and hardhat, and think scrubs and a stethoscope.

As of January, more than 18 million people worked in health care, compared to 12 million in manufacturing, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And those two sectors have been headed in opposite directions in recent years.

Factory jobs evaporated nearly every month, despite an unusual increase of 5,000 in the most recent jobs report Wednesday. Health care added 137,000 jobs in January, offsetting an employment decline in other sectors.

Total employment in 2025 would have declined if not for the fact that health care added 33,000 jobs each month, economists at BMO Capital Markets said in a research note.

What This Means For The Economy

The fact that job gains are concentrated in health care suggests the labor market may be more fragile than it would appear, despite a healthy top-line number.

The ranks of health care workers are growing as the population ages. Meanwhile, automation and trade turmoil drain away employment opportunities in the once-dominant manufacturing sector, despite President Donald Trump’s tariff policies intended to spark a “renaissance.”

“Health care continues to drive the bulk of job creation in the U.S. economy, while most other labour market indicators … remain soft,” Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO, wrote.

Read the original article on Investopedia

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