Private-sector healthcare now comprises a higher percentage of total U.S. employment than ever before, reaching 10.7 percent, according to a new report from the Altarum Institute.
That figure represents an increase of more than one percentage point since the start of the recession in December 2007, when private-sector healthcare represented 9.5 percent of total employment. The study was done by the Altarum Institute’s Center for Studying Health Spending. The analysis is based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The growth in healthcare jobs contrasts with the rest of the economy. The study shows that while healthcare employment increased 6.3 percent since December 2007, non-healthcare employment has fallen by 6.8 percent.
Charles Roehrig, director of Altarum’s Center for Studying Health Spending, said in a statement that while healthcare jobs have helped offset the declines in other sectors, the health sector is likely to peak in the near future.
“Although health employment will continue to rise, we expect non-health employment will grow more rapidly so that health employment’s share of the total will stabilize,” he said.
