Health Care and Social Assistance: NAICS 62

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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	Jun. 2024	Jul. 2024	Aug. 2024	Sep. 2024
Employment (in thousands)
Employment, all employees (seasonally adjusted)	22,470.5	22,534.2	(p)22,588.1	(p)22,659.8
Employment, production and nonsupervisory employees	19,720.9	19,779.3	(p)19,859.5
Unemployment
Unemployment rate	2.6%	3.2%	3.0%	2.7%
Job openings, hires, and separations (in thousands)
Job openings	1,493	1,557	1,443	(p)1,259
Hires	768	834	777	(p)768
Separations	666	793	704	(p)643
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

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

Union Membership and Representation


Data series	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, 2023
Home health aides	3,575,980
Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses	533,180
Medical and health services managers	402,960
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	May 2024	Jun. 2024	Jul. 2024	Aug. 2024
Average hourly earnings	$34.26	$34.38	$34.70	(p)$34.75
Average weekly hours	33.2	33.4	33.0	(p)33.0
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Earnings and Hours of Production and Nonsupervisory Employees


Data series	May 2024	Jun. 2024	Jul. 2024	Aug. 2024
Average hourly earnings	$31.63	$31.69	$32.00	(p)$32.12
Average weekly hours	32.2	32.5	32.1	(p)32.2
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Earnings by Occupation


Data series	Wages, 2023
	Hourly		Annual
	Median	Mean	Median	Mean
Home health aides	$16.12	$16.00	$33,530	$33,280
Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses	$28.56	$28.92	$59,400	$60,150
Medical and health services managers	$51.11	$61.69	$106,320	$128,310

(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	2024	Back data	2024
Private industry
Retirement benefit plans		75		61
Defined benefit plans		16		13
Defined contribution plans		74		58
State and local government
Retirement benefit plans		92		77
Defined benefit plans		71		55
Defined contribution plans		61		34

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)


Data series	After 1 year of service		After 20 years of service
Data series	Back data	2024	Back data	2024
Mean number of vacation days for workers without consolidated leave plans
Private industry		9		17
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	2024	Back data	2024
Percent of workers with access to employer-sponsored benefits
Health care		77		91
Paid vacation		86		92
Paid sick leave		88		94

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)

Employer Compensation Costs


Data series	4th quarter 2023	1st quarter 2024	2nd quarter 2024	3rd quarter 2024
Private industry
12-month percent change
Total compensation	4.6%	4.5%	4.4%	4.3%
Wages and salaries	5.0%	4.7%	4.5%	4.3%
3-month percent change
Total compensation	0.9%	1.2%	1.0%	1.1%
Wages and salaries	1.0%	1.0%	0.9%	1.3%
State and local government
12-month percent change
Total compensation	4.4%	4.9%	5.0%	4.4%
Wages and salaries	4.5%	4.9%	4.9%	4.3%
3-month percent change
Total compensation	0.7%	1.6%	0.6%	1.5%
Wages and salaries	0.8%	1.3%	0.5%	1.6%

(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 2024	Back data	2nd quarter 2024	Back data	2nd quarter 2024	Back data	2nd quarter 2024
Total compensation		46.26		100.0		55.57		100.0
Wages and salaries		32.57		70.4		34.21		61.6
Total benefits		13.69		29.6		21.36		38.4
Insurance		3.34		7.2		6.59		11.9
Retirement		1.57		3.4		5.02		9.0
Paid leave		4.02		8.7		5.32		9.6

(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)

Union Membership and Representation


Data series	Back data	Median weekly earnings
Data series	Back data	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	Jun. 2024	Jul. 2024	Aug. 2024	Sep. 2024
Producer price index	(p)144.160	(p)144.528	(p)144.890	(p)145.030
Percent change from previous month	(p)0.0%	(p)0.3%	(p)0.3%	(p)0.1%
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 2023	3rd quarter 2023	4th quarter 2023	1st quarter 2024
Number of establishments
Private industry	1,869,483	1,892,110	1,933,737	(p)1,990,185
Local government	7,144	7,222	7,238	(p)7,289
State government	6,816	6,731	6,763	(p)6,691
Federal government	1,243	1,230	1,254	(p)1,270
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages)

Productivity

This section presents productivity and related data for the industry, presented as the percent change from the previous year. Measures of total factor productivity (TFP) compare growth in output to the growth in a combination of inputs that include labor, capital, energy, materials, and services. Measures of labor productivity, or output per hour, compare the growth in output to the growth in hours worked.


Data series	2019	2020	2021	2022
Total factor productivity (TFP)	0.9	-2.1	1.9	0.4
Output	3.2	-7.0	8.8	2.8
Combined inputs	2.3	-5.0	6.7	2.4
Capital input	2.1	2.1	2.8	3.3
Labor input	2.2	-2.6	4.3	2.7
Labor productivity, output per hour	1.6	-2.2	4.3	0.7

(Source: Productivity)

Data extracted on: October 31, 2024