The nation’s healthcare industry fueled the greatest number of new jobs last month, contributing to what economists are regarding as a generally robust end of the year employment picture.
As of the last day of December, the healthcare industry saw the addition of 46,100 new jobs, with a gain of 15,000 in home health care services, followed by around 14,000 in nursing and residential care facilities; and 12,000 more jobs in hospitals.
Overall, notes the publication Medical Economics, the nation’s healthcare industry “added an average of 57,000 jobs a month in 2024.”
The latest figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a significant gain of 256,000 new jobs across all industries in December, a figure that the New York Times characterized as a “better-than-expected numbers amid a labor market that has been slowly cooling for two years.”
The retail trade sector, after losing 29,000 jobs in November, made a comeback in December with 43,000 new jobs; while government employment, which has seen an average monthly gain throughout 2024 of 37,000 new jobs, added 33,000 in December.
The month also saw a more modest gain of 8,000 new jobs in the construction industry, with the nonresidential sector accounting for 4,700 of those jobs. The nonresidential specialty trade sector was up by 3,900 jobs, followed by the heavy and civil engineering sector with 600 new jobs.
In a statement, Anirban Basu, chief economist with the Associated Builders and Contractors, said the latest figures show that construction job growth has “clearly slowed in recent months.” Overall, the industry has gained 196,000 new jobs between December of 2023 and this most recent December.
The nation’s total job growth for December provided bragging rights for President Biden who, in a White House statement, said more than 16.1 million new jobs have been created nationally since January of 2021.
Biden added that his administration is now the “only administration in history to have created new jobs every single month.” The President also said that the nation’s unemployment rate had declined in the last four years from more than 6% to today’s 4.1%.
Added Biden: “Although forecasts were projecting it would take years to achieve a full recovery, we have had the strongest growth and employment creation of any advanced country.”
January 13, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
