Health Care

The one industry powering the U.S. labor market

Five charts that show health care’s economic dominance.

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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.

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