Higher Job Loss and Bigger Health Care Industry

A whopping 533,000 lost jobs were recorded for November. This raised the unemployment rate across the country from 6.5 percent to 6.7 percent, said the New York Times. Almost every single industry is suffering- save one: the health care industry.

In November, the health care industry added 33,800 jobs, making the growth at 0.3 percent, stated Modern Healthcare. Also, hospitals and physician offices grew steadily in 2008. Which gives them an increase in employees of 3.1 percent.

It does make sense that this might be the case. Health care services are always in demand, and when budgets become tight, one’s health will usually trump other expenses. (Costs for health insurance plans, however, are another story.)

But there are other factors to the growth, as well, pointed out one health care analyst. According to Robert Hawkins, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, the increasing number of Americans with chronic health conditions such as obesity is one of the main factors in health care growth.

The demand grows when more people have chronic ailments. Hawkins says, “With that volume comes jobs to take care of these folks.

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