Private health sector employment share in the US reaches all-time high of 10.7%

Private sector health care employment in the United States reached an all-time high of 10.7 percent of total employment, according to a report released by Altarum Institute's Center for Studying Health Spending. This health sector employment share is an increase of more than one percentage point since the start of the recession in December 2007 when the share stood at 9.5 percent. Altarum's analysis is based upon data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Health care employment growth stands in sharp contrast to the rest of the economy. While health care employment has increased by 6.3 percent since December 2007, non-health care employment has fallen by 6.8 percent. Altarum's report indicates that January 2011 employment grew in all of the major health care settings, with outpatient care centers showing the highest twelve-month rate of increase (5.3 percent) and hospitals the lowest (0.7 percent).

"It's clear from these data that the health sector has helped stabilize the economy and buttressed overall employment following the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. During the 19 months of post-recession recovery that officially began in June 2009, non-health employment has actually still declined, but health sector employment has grown every month," said Dr. Charles Roehrig, the Director of Altarum's Center for Studying Health Spending. "However, we believe the health sector share is likely to peak in the near future. Although health employment will continue to rise, we expect non-health employment will grow more rapidly so that health employment's share of the total will stabilize."

These health employment findings come from the first of Altarum's "Health Sector Economic Indicators" reports. The reports, to be published monthly, are designed to address gaps in health macroeconomic data and get real-time information into the hands of economic forecasters and analysts. The new publications address some significant shortcomings in the availability of timely economic data on the health sector—including employment, spending, and prices—and will provide unique analyses of important health economic interactions.