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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.
2022
Dec.
2022
Jan.
2023
Feb.
2023

Employment (in thousands)

Employment, all employees (seasonally adjusted)

20,897.1 20,970.2 (p)21,045.8 (p)21,108.6

Employment, production and nonsupervisory employees

18,352.3 18,402.4 (p)18,341.8  

Unemployment

Unemployment rate

2.2% 2.1% 2.2% 2.6%

Job openings, hires, and separations (in thousands)

Job openings

1,814 1,821 (p)2,006  

Hires

647 635 (p)876  

Separations

580 650 (p)752  

Footnotes
(p) Preliminary

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

Union Membership and Representation

Data series Back
data
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,
2021

Home health aides

3,258,330

Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses

551,660

Medical and health services managers

347,060

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.
2022
Nov.
2022
Dec.
2022
Jan.
2023

Average hourly earnings

$32.70 $32.88 $33.16 (p)$33.26

Average weekly hours

33.7 33.5 33.3 (p)33.9

Footnotes
(p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Earnings and Hours of Production and Nonsupervisory Employees

Data series Back
data
Oct.
2022
Nov.
2022
Dec.
2022
Jan.
2023

Average hourly earnings

$30.04 $30.18 $30.41 (p)$30.60

Average weekly hours

32.9 32.7 32.7 (p)33.1

Footnotes
(p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Earnings by Occupation

Data series Wages, 2021
Hourly Annual
Median Mean Median Mean

Home health aides

$14.14 $14.02 $29,420 $29,160

Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses

$23.11 $24.84 $48,070 $51,660

Medical and health services managers

$47.72 $55.32 $99,270 $115,070

(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
2022 Back
data
2022

Private industry

Retirement benefit plans

74 55

Defined benefit plans

15 12

Defined contribution plans

71 51

State and local government

Retirement benefit plans

93 79

Defined benefit plans

73 57

Defined contribution plans

61 35

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)

Data series After 1 year of service After 20 years of service
Back
data
2021 Back
data
2021

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
2022 Back
data
2022

Percent of workers with access to employer-sponsored benefits

Health care

78 91

Paid vacation

87 93

Paid sick leave

86 94

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)

Employer Compensation Costs

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

Private industry

12-month percent change

Total compensation

5.3% 5.7% 5.8% 5.5%

Wages and salaries

5.8% 6.0% 6.1% 5.7%

3-month percent change

Total compensation

1.6% 1.1% 1.4% 1.3%

Wages and salaries

1.5% 1.1% 1.5% 1.5%

State and local government

12-month percent change

Total compensation

4.1% 4.3% 5.5% 5.5%

Wages and salaries

4.5% 4.9% 5.6% 5.7%

3-month percent change

Total compensation

1.1% 0.8% 2.3% 1.3%

Wages and salaries

0.8% 1.0% 2.4% 1.5%

(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
4th quarter 2022 Back
data
4th quarter 2022 Back
data
4th quarter 2022 Back
data
4th quarter 2022

Total compensation

41.48 100.0 51.74 100.0

Wages and salaries

29.24 70.5 31.92 61.7

Total benefits

12.23 29.5 19.82 38.3

Insurance

3.17 7.6 6.03 11.6

Retirement

1.31 3.2 4.68 9.1

Paid leave

3.68 8.9 4.97 9.6

(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)

Union Membership and Representation

Data series Back
data
Median weekly earnings
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 Back
data
Nov.
2022
Dec.
2022
Jan.
2023
Feb.
2023

Producer price index

(p)137.720 (p)137.993 (p)138.584 (p)139.056

Percent change from previous month

  (p)-0.1% (p)0.2% (p)0.4% (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
2021
1st quarter
2022
2nd quarter
2022
3rd quarter
2022

Number of establishments

Private industry

1,830,938 (p)1,818,778 (p)1,845,824 (p)1,850,899

Local government

7,004 (p)7,030 (p)7,046 (p)7,078

State government

6,829 (p)6,805 (p)6,796 (p)6,817

Federal government

1,226 (p)1,227 (p)1,228 (p)1,259

Footnotes
(p) Preliminary

(Source: Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages)

 

Data extracted on: March 21, 2023