Health-care employers continued hiring at a brisk pace last month even as overall employment growth slowed down, shows.
Hospitals, doctor offices and other medical employers added 19,000 jobs in April. That represents a sixth聽of the total April increase of 115,000 jobs, even though health care聽makes up only 11 percent of the employment base. While some insurers have reported continued moderation in health-cost increases this year, the聽job聽gains suggest that health care continues to claim larger聽portions of the economy, analysts say.
With an aging population and a continued struggle by policymakers to contain medical spending, health care聽“is聽almost recession proof,”聽said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist for , an economic research company
Of the 1.8 million jobs added聽by the economy in the last 12 months, 17 percent have been in medicine. Health聽spending represents 18 percent of the U.S. economy聽— a higher portion than in any other nation.
“As we try to grapple with health-care costs and try to get them under control, I suspect that will take聽its toll in one of聽two ways: either in terms of [slowing growth of] the聽average salaries in health care or in employment growth.聽I suspect in employment growth,” Behravesh said. However, he added: “It may not happen in the next couple of years.”
