Health Care and Social Assistance: NAICS 62

On This Page

About the Health Care and Social Assistance sector
BLS Data

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	May 2023	Jun. 2023	Jul. 2023	Aug. 2023
Employment (in thousands)
Employment, all employees (seasonally adjusted)	21,298.0	21,383.9	(p)21,483.5	(p)21,580.8
Employment, production and nonsupervisory employees	18,616.9	18,698.7	(p)18,781.9
Unemployment
Unemployment rate	2.4%	2.5%	2.3%	2.7%
Job openings, hires, and separations (in thousands)
Job openings	1,573	1,610	(p)1,699
Hires	864	902	(p)859
Separations	805	822	(p)785
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

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

Union Membership and Representation


Data series	2019	2020	2021	2022
Union membership and representation
Members of unions (percent of wage and salary workers)	6.8%	7.1%	6.6%	6.6%
Represented by unions (percent of wage and salary workers)	7.9%	8.3%	7.7%	7.7%

(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	Apr. 2023	May 2023	Jun. 2023	Jul. 2023
Average hourly earnings	$33.22	$33.10	$33.10	(p)$33.54
Average weekly hours	33.7	33.4	33.4	(p)33.6
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Earnings and Hours of Production and Nonsupervisory Employees


Data series	Apr. 2023	May 2023	Jun. 2023	Jul. 2023
Average hourly earnings	$30.53	$30.44	$30.45	(p)$30.80
Average weekly hours	32.9	32.7	32.6	(p)32.8
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
Data series	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
Data series	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
Data series	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	3rd quarter 2022	4th quarter 2022	1st quarter 2023	2nd quarter 2023
Private industry
12-month percent change
Total compensation	5.8%	5.5%	5.3%	5.2%
Wages and salaries	6.1%	5.7%	5.7%	5.6%
3-month percent change
Total compensation	1.4%	1.3%	1.4%	1.0%
Wages and salaries	1.5%	1.5%	1.4%	1.1%
State and local government
12-month percent change
Total compensation	5.5%	5.5%	5.5%	5.2%
Wages and salaries	5.6%	5.7%	5.9%	5.4%
3-month percent change
Total compensation	2.3%	1.3%	1.1%	0.6%
Wages and salaries	2.4%	1.5%	1.0%	0.5%

(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	2nd quarter 2023	Back data	2nd quarter 2023	Back data	2nd quarter 2023	Back data	2nd quarter 2023
Total compensation		42.33		100.0		52.57		100.0
Wages and salaries		29.90		70.6		32.38		61.6
Total benefits		12.44		29.4		20.19		38.4
Insurance		3.19		7.5		6.17		11.7
Retirement		1.31		3.1		4.80		9.1
Paid leave		3.75		8.9		5.01		9.5

(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)

Union Membership and Representation


Data series	Back data	Median weekly earnings
Data series	Back data	2019	2020	2021	2022
Union membership and representation
Full-time workers		$864	$937	$953	$1,004
Members of unions		$1,008	$1,079	$1,139	$1,141
Represented by unions		$1,006	$1,094	$1,134	$1,134
Nonunion		$851	$923	$939	$995

(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	2018	2019	2020	2021
Fatalities
Number of fatalities	149	161	128	151
Blank cells indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria.


Data series	2021
Rate of injury and illness cases per 100 full-time workers
Total recordable cases	4.3
Cases involving days away from work, job restriction, or transfer	2.5
Cases involving days away from work	1.9
Cases involving days of job transfer or restriction	0.6
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	May 2023	Jun. 2023	Jul. 2023	Aug. 2023
Producer price index	(p)139.899	(p)139.894	(p)140.501	(p)140.712
Percent change from previous month	(p)0.2%	(p)0.0%	(p)0.4%	(p)0.2%
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	2nd quarter 2022	3rd quarter 2022	4th quarter 2022	1st quarter 2023
Number of establishments
Private industry	1,844,206	1,853,598	1,885,610	(p)1,926,841
Local government	7,043	7,085	7,086	(p)7,130
State government	6,810	6,818	6,814	(p)6,828
Federal government	1,227	1,258	1,258	(p)1,246
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages)

Data extracted on: September 27, 2023