US Job Market’s Key Driver at Risk as Health-Care Hiring Slows
- Health-care payrolls rose in August by least since early 2022
- Retreat follows post-pandemic boom in hospitals, nursing care
A post-pandemic boom in health-care hiring propelled its share of the overall US workforce to a new record.
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Health care has been a key driver of post-pandemic employment growth in the US, accounting for about one in five new jobs across the country since 2021. Now a hiring slowdown in that sector is making the broader labor market look increasingly shaky.
Companies added just 30,900 health-care workers to payrolls in August, the least in more than two years. The pullback was especially pronounced in hospitals and nursing care facilities, which together employ half of the sector’s 17.7 million-strong workforce. A monthly jobs report due Friday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics will show whether the slowdown continued in September.