The one industry powering the U.S. labor market

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Health Care

The one industry powering the U.S. labor market

Five charts that show health care’s economic dominance.

Today at 5:00 a.m. EST


Medical personnel in McAllen, Texas. (Eric Gay/AP)

By Abha Bhattarai and Luis Melgar

Nearly all of the jobs added to the U.S. economy in recent months have come from one industry: health care.

Health care and social assistance accounted for 95 percent of the 130,000 jobs added in January. That builds on similar trends throughout 2025, when the industry buoyed an otherwise slow labor market, as the nation’s hospitals, clinics and nursing homes kept hiring even as many employers pulled back.

{snip}

[sop]

1. I suspect after all us boomer old folks die off, there will be massive layoffs

[mopinko]

2. i dunno. ppl getting cancer younger and younger.

have a friend whose daughter has colon cancer at 30.
a couple of my kids r incredibly unhealthy.

[sop]

4. 'Colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer death in people under 50'

(NBC News) "Colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer deaths among people younger than 50 in the United States, according to a study published Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Association."

"Colorectal cancer death rates in that age group climbed by 1% every year since 2005, in stark contrast with the larger trend: Overall, cancer death rates in people younger than 50 have dropped by 44% since 1990. And of the five most common causes of cancer-related death in people younger than 50, colorectal cancer deaths were the only one to increase."

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/cancer/colorectal-cancer-now-leading-cause-cancer-death-people-50-rcna255235

[SonOfNebanaube]

5. yet

Glyphosate is still in everything we eat.

[mopinko]

6. they need to revise the guidelines for colonoscopies.

old enough to remember when u almost couldnt get 1 if u were under 50. got my 1st at 47 cuz i had pretty bad gi issues. been plucking polyps ever since.
which is the thing- an early scope can head it off at the pass. but we rly need to figure out what is triggering this.

[sop]

7. It has to be the diet of processed foods many in that age group were fed as children.

[mopinko]

8. possible. but

seems like that’s easy enough to track down and prove.

[mopinko]

3. the number of good jobs created by the aca

is something we dont talk about nearly enough.
in the 08 crash, 1 of the reasons chgo wasnt detroit is our huge healthcare sector.
(the other is that daley ‘sold’ the parking meters, but that’s a different story.)