Department of Labor Logo United States Department of Labor
Dot gov

The .gov means it's official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Health Care and Social Assistance: NAICS 62

About the Health Care and Social Assistance sector

The health care and social assistance sector is part of the education and health services supersector.

The Health Care and Social Assistance sector comprises establishments providing health care and social assistance for individuals. The sector includes both health care and social assistance because it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the boundaries of these two activities. The industries in this sector are arranged on a continuum starting with those establishments providing medical care exclusively, continuing with those providing health care and social assistance, and finally finishing with those providing only social assistance. The services provided by establishments in this sector are delivered by trained professionals. All industries in the sector share this commonality of process, namely, labor inputs of health practitioners or social workers with the requisite expertise. Many of the industries in the sector are defined based on the educational degree held by the practitioners included in the industry.

North American Industry Classification System

The health care and social assistance sector consists of these subsectors:

Workforce Statistics

This section provides information relating to employment and unemployment in health care and social assistance. While most data are obtained from employer or establishment surveys, information on industry unemployment comes from a national survey of households. The following tables present an overview of the industry including the number of jobs, the unemployment rate of those previously employed in the industry, job openings and labor turnover, union membership and representation, data for occupations common to the industry, and projections of occupational employment change.

Employment, Unemployment, and Openings, Hires, and Separations

Data series Back
data
Nov.
2023
Dec.
2023
Jan.
2024
Feb.
2024

Employment (in thousands)

Employment, all employees (seasonally adjusted)

21,912.4 21,988.5 (p)22,075.1 (p)22,165.8

Employment, production and nonsupervisory employees

19,287.5 19,347.0 (p)19,273.0  

Unemployment

Unemployment rate

2.0% 2.2% 2.4% 2.2%

Job openings, hires, and separations (in thousands)

Job openings

1,700 1,752 (p)1,992  

Hires

704 591 (p)758  

Separations

620 602 (p)639  

Footnotes
(p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics, Current Population Survey, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey)

Union Membership and Representation

Data series Back
data
2020 2021 2022 2023

Union membership and representation

Members of unions (percent of wage and salary workers)

7.1% 6.6% 6.6% 6.9%

Represented by unions (percent of wage and salary workers)

8.3% 7.7% 7.7% 7.8%

(Source: Current Population Survey)

Employment by Occupation

Data series Employment,
2022

Home health aides

3,404,960

Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses

538,310

Medical and health services managers

372,030

Note: These employment estimates include employment in both the private-sector and government.

(Source: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics)

Projections

For projected (future) employment estimates, see the National Employment Matrix, which includes employment estimates by industry and occupation for health care and social assistance.

(Source: Office of Occupational Statistics and Employment Projections)

Earnings and Hours

This section presents data on employee earnings and weekly hours. The latest industry averages of hourly earnings and weekly hours, as well as weekly earnings by union membership status, are shown. In addition, recent hourly and annual earnings are shown for occupations commonly found in health care and social assistance. This section also contains information on the average cost of benefits paid by employers, as well as recent rates of change in wages and total compensation.

Earnings and Hours of All Employees

Data series Back
data
Oct.
2023
Nov.
2023
Dec.
2023
Jan.
2024

Average hourly earnings

$33.85 $33.83 $34.05 (p)$34.25

Average weekly hours

33.6 33.3 33.3 (p)33.2

Footnotes
(p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Earnings and Hours of Production and Nonsupervisory Employees

Data series Back
data
Oct.
2023
Nov.
2023
Dec.
2023
Jan.
2024

Average hourly earnings

$31.22 $31.15 $31.35 (p)$31.48

Average weekly hours

32.8 32.5 32.5 (p)32.3

Footnotes
(p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Earnings by Occupation

Data series Wages, 2022
Hourly Annual
Median Mean Median Mean

Home health aides

$14.51 $14.83 $30,180 $30,850

Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses

$26.05 $26.69 $54,190 $55,520

Medical and health services managers

$49.39 $58.85 $102,730 $122,420

(Source: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics)

Employee Benefits

This section presents data on the incidence (the percentage of workers with access to and participation in employer-provided benefit plans) and provisions of selected employee benefits from the National Compensation Survey. More Benefits estimates are also accessible from the Benefits database, the archived NCS publications page, and the complete Employee Benefits Excel dataset (XLSX).

Data series Access Participation
Back
data
2023 Back
data
2023

Private industry

Retirement benefit plans

75 58

Defined benefit plans

14 11

Defined contribution plans

73 55

State and local government

Retirement benefit plans

92 76

Defined benefit plans

71 56

Defined contribution plans

61 31

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)

Data series After 1 year of service After 20 years of service
Back
data
2023 Back
data
2023

Mean number of vacation days for workers without consolidated leave plans

Private industry

9 16

State and local government

13 23

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)

Data series Private industry State and local government
Back
data
2023 Back
data
2023

Percent of workers with access to employer-sponsored benefits

Health care

79 91

Paid vacation

88 92

Paid sick leave

87 93

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)

Employer Compensation Costs

Data series Back
data
1st quarter
2023
2nd quarter
2023
3rd quarter
2023
4th quarter
2023

Private industry

12-month percent change

Total compensation

5.3% 5.2% 5.0% 4.6%

Wages and salaries

5.7% 5.6% 5.5% 5.0%

3-month percent change

Total compensation

1.4% 1.0% 1.3% 0.9%

Wages and salaries

1.4% 1.1% 1.4% 1.0%

State and local government

12-month percent change

Total compensation

5.5% 5.2% 5.0% 4.4%

Wages and salaries

5.9% 5.4% 5.3% 4.5%

3-month percent change

Total compensation

1.1% 0.6% 2.0% 0.7%

Wages and salaries

1.0% 0.5% 2.2% 0.8%

(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)

Data series Private industry State and local government
Compensation component
($ per hour worked)
Percent of total compensation Compensation component
($ per hour worked)
Percent of total compensation
Back
data
4th quarter 2023 Back
data
4th quarter 2023 Back
data
4th quarter 2023 Back
data
4th quarter 2023

Total compensation

45.16 100.0 54.25 100.0

Wages and salaries

31.84 70.5 33.55 61.8

Total benefits

13.32 29.5 20.70 38.2

Insurance

3.25 7.2 6.28 11.6

Retirement

1.53 3.4 4.90 9.0

Paid leave

3.93 8.7 5.21 9.6

(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)

Union Membership and Representation

Data series Back
data
Median weekly earnings
2020 2021 2022 2023

Union membership and representation

Full-time workers

$937 $953 $1,004 $1,062

Members of unions

$1,079 $1,139 $1,141 $1,145

Represented by unions

$1,094 $1,134 $1,134 $1,145

Nonunion

$923 $939 $995 $1,049

(Source: Current Population Survey)

Work-related Fatalities, Injuries, and Illnesses

This section presents data for the industry on the number of workplace fatalities and the rates of workplace injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers in health care and social assistance. An injury or illness is considered to be work-related if an event or exposure in the work environment either caused or contributed to the resulting condition or significantly aggravated a pre-existing condition.

Data series 2019 2020 2021 2022

Fatalities

Number of fatalities

161 128 151 159

Blank cells indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria.

Data series 2022

Rate of injury and illness cases per 100 full-time workers

Total recordable cases

4.5

Cases involving days away from work, job restriction, or transfer

2.7

Cases involving days away from work

2.2

Cases involving days of job transfer or restriction

0.5

Blank cells indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria.

(Source: Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities)

Prices

This section provides industry-specific pricing information. The producer price index measures the percentage change in prices that domestic producers receive for goods and services. The prices included in the producer price index are from the first commercial transaction.

Data series Back
data
Nov.
2023
Dec.
2023
Jan.
2024
Feb.
2024

Producer price index

(p)141.476 (p)141.512 (p)143.040 (p)143.446

Percent change from previous month

  (p)0.0% (p)0.0% (p)1.1% (p)0.3%

Footnotes
(p) Preliminary

(Source: Producer Price Indexes)

Workplace Trends

This section presents data on the number of establishments in health care and social assistance.

Establishments

Data series Back
data
4th quarter
2022
1st quarter
2023
2nd quarter
2023
3rd quarter
2023

Number of establishments

Private industry

1,885,610 (p)1,926,967 (p)1,902,815 (p)1,925,858

Local government

7,086 (p)7,121 (p)7,153 (p)7,228

State government

6,814 (p)6,805 (p)6,799 (p)6,824

Federal government

1,258 (p)1,248 (p)1,243 (p)1,230

Footnotes
(p) Preliminary

(Source: Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages)

 

Data extracted on: March 15, 2024