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The health care industry led the nation in job growth in September, continuing a monthslong trend of resisting economic headwinds.
Health care added 43,000 positions in September, or about 1 in 3 U.S. jobs added that month, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. The long-anticipated jobs report released Nov. 20 had been delayed due to the monthlong federal government shutdown.
The nation added 23,000 jobs in ambulatory health care services, a category that includes doctor and dental offices, laboratories, home health care services and other outpatient care. Hospitals added another 16,000 positions in September.
Social assistance – which includes individual and family services, community food and housing, child care, vocational rehab and emergency and other relief services – added another 14,000 jobs in September.
In the three months of BLS data released before the delayed September report, health care added about 114,000 jobs and social assistance added around 63,000, In other words, health care and social assistance accounted for about 3 in 4 jobs over that three-month period.USA TODAY Shopping: Shop sales in tech, home, fashion, beauty & more curated by our editors.
Why does health care generate so many jobs?
An aging population and the nation’s high rate of chronic diseases have both propelled job growth in the health care industry, said Robert Kaestner, an economist and research professor at the University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy.
People need health services at clinics, doctors offices and hospitals, and they often take prescription drugs to manage chronic health conditions.
“We have more people with more illnesses because we have more older people, and we have a lot of chronically ill people of all ages,” Kaestner said.
The U.S. spends more on health care than any other nation, another factor that has bolstered industry job growth. That investment also spurs innovation in new treatments for conditions such as cancer, heart disease and obesity, Kaestner said.
The U.S. health system is largely funded by a combination of government health insurance programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act and employers that provide insurance for working-age Americans.
Those federal health programs, employers and consumers support the privately-owned hospitals, doctors practices, clinics and other health care employers. And those private health providers hire workers to provide services that patients and consumers demand.
The Association of American Medical Colleges projects the the nation’s physician shortage could reach as many as 86,000 doctors by 2036. Beyond physicians, demand has soared for other health providers such as nurse practitioners, physician assistants and pharmacists.
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Patients seeking specialty care often face long wait time for appointments due to workforce shortages. One example: consumers seeking in vitro fertilization face barriers such as cost and access to care.
IVF involves a technology where eggs are combined with sperm in a lab to form embryos. Demand for fertility services has soared as more states mandate insurance plans cover fertility treatments and more fertility clinics open, said Dr. Paul Magarelli, dean of the clinical school at IVF Academy.
Even more Americans might seek fertility care after the Trump administration pressured drugmakers to lower the cost of a key fertility drug, Magarelli said.
But fertility care could be delayed due to a shortage of physician specialists trained to handle IVF services. IVF Academy is a startup organization that seeks to address the shortage by training gynecologists to perform IVF services on par with specialists, called reproductive endocrinologists.
“The access to IVF in the United States is at the very bottom of the world by population,” said Magarelli. “We are underserving this population of folks.”
Contributing: Rachel Barber
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