Always a job-creator, the nation’s healthcare industry last month added 62,000 new workers, according to the latest Department of Labor statistics.
That 62,000 made the industry the number one source of new jobs in the country, followed by the hospitality industry with 28,000 additional jobs in May.
The construction industry saw a less robust employment growth with 4,000 new jobs. But even at that, according to the Associated Builders and Contractors, the industry has added 126,000 new jobs since May of 2024.
The big gain in new healthcare workers, reports the Center for Economic and Policy Research, was a significant increase over April’s 42,000 new jobs and now accounts for “almost 45% of the month’s growth.”
Some of the greatest job increases within the industry include home health and personal care aides, physical therapy aides, and medical assistants. But for all that steady growth, the CEPR warns that “growth prospects for the sector going forward are likely to be dampened by the prospect of federal budget cuts.”
Overall, the nation saw a gain of 139,000 new jobs in May, a figure that Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer characterized as part of a “remarkable economic comeback.” Chavez-DeRemer added that a total of more than 508,000 jobs nationally has been created since January.
Big gainers in construction: the non-residential sector with a 2.6% increase over last year at this time; non-residential specialty contractors, up by 2.9%; and the heavy and civil engineering sector, also up by 2.6% in the last year.
The nation’s unemployment rate, meanwhile, came in at 4.2% in May, relatively equal to where things stood a year ago, and significantly lower than the just under 6% recorded in the spring of 2022.
States in the upper northern tier produced the lowest jobless numbers, led by South Dakota at 1.8%. Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico were just a little over the national average with 4.1%, 4.8% and 4.3% respectively
June 9, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Pixabay
