When Healthcare drives job growth

What does it mean when the healthcare sector drives job growth? Here are some possibilities for discussion.

First, consider this from the New England Journal of Medicine.

"How much will the United States spend on health care during the next decade or two? The answer matters greatly to physicians, federal and state governments, businesses, and the general public. The answer will determine the type and extent of care that physicians can provide to their patients, as well as the amount of physicians' take-home pay. It will also determine how much everyone else can consume or invest in other goods and services. Unfortunately, forecasting health care spending is extremely difficult. Future spending depends in part on developments within the health care sector and in part on developments in the economy as a whole." 

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1305298#t=article

Facts about healthcare employment

1. Obamacare drove job growth in healthcare because more money was directed to cover uninsured people.

2. Healthcare employment contributes to full employment, but it does so as a percentage of GDP and government spending and does not add to the GDP. It is like welfare as is defense spending to keep contractors viable.

Republican policies that reduce the contribution will reduce healthcare employment while reducing the level and quality of service.

"Healthcare drives yearly job growth 

By Shelby Livingston  | January 6, 2017 

Healthcare created more jobs than any other sector in 2016, helping to drive total annual job growth to 2.2 million, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In December alone, healthcare added 43,200 jobs — a good chunk of the 156,000 total nonfarm jobs added last month. Year over year, healthcare added 406,600 jobs. The industry accounted for 15.8 million jobs at the end of December. 

Total healthcare jobs per month in 2016 

Most of the growth in the healthcare sector occurred in ambulatory healthcare services, which added 29,700 jobs, followed by hospitals, which added 10,700. 

In 2016, the healthcare industry grew by 35,000 jobs per month on average. That's slightly less that in 2015, when jobs in the sector grew by an average of 39,000 a month, according to the federal data. In 2015, 2.7 million jobs were created. 

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20170106/NEWS/170109951

The unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 4.7% in December from 4.6% in November. 

April Jobs Report: 211,000 Jobs Added; Unemployment At 4.4 Percent
May 5, 20178:44 AM ET
BILL CHAPPELL 

The U.S. economy added 211,000 jobs to nonfarm payrolls in April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says. The number is a sharp rebound from March when fewer than 100,000 jobs were created. 

Both the national unemployment rate, at 4.4 percent, and the number of unemployed people, at 7.1 million, saw only incremental changes last month, according to the Bureau. By falling from 4.5 percent to 4.4 percent, the unemployment rate remains at low levels that were last seen in 2007, before the recession hit. 

"The labor force participation rate, at 62.9 percent, changed little in April and has shown little movement over the past year," the Labor Department agency says. 

American job results from March of 2017 are now even worse than when they first came out. While the BLS initially reported a paltry gain of 98,000 jobs, the figure has now been revised downward to 79,000. 

In the new jobs report that came out Friday morning, some of the biggest gains came in leisure and hospitality, health care and social assistance, financial activities, and mining.
"Over the year, the unemployment rate has declined by 0.6 percentage point, and the number of unemployed has fallen by 854,000," the Bureau of Labor Statistics says."
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/05/527033952/april-jobs-report-211-000-jobs-added-unemployment-at-4-4-percent? 

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/05/527033952/april-jobs-report-211-000-jobs-added-unemployment-at-4-4-percent?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20170505&utm_campaign=breakingnews&utm_term=nprnews

It is guns or butter, healthcare or defense weapons