The US labor market now performs a rather peculiar solo act, with healthcare and social assistance taking the central bow since December 2024, while the rest of the economy clears its throat and, alas, loses jobs.
A closer perusal shows a smashing divide between a booming one and a chorus of far less enthusiastic performers across almost every other industry.
Healthcare, the lone hero, keeps the show on the road while the rest of the private sector coughs and contracts
The Global Markets Investor observed that the US economy has added an average of just 21,000 jobs each month since the start of 2025, which translates to about 0.2% per year, give or take a cardigan or two.
The piece stated that job creation has “never been this weak” outside a formal recession. To put it in poker terms, annual employment growth averaged roughly 2.2% from 1948 to 1979, drifted down to 1.5% from 1980 to 2007, and then sulked to about 0.8% during both 2008-2019 and 2020-2024.
As of now, the pace of job growth is nearly four times weaker than in the post-financial-crisis era and more than ten times weaker than during the post-war expansion. A proper cinch, if you please.
Meanwhile, healthcare and social assistance have added about 57,000 jobs per month since December 2024. In other words, the rest of the private sector has been losing an estimated 21,500 jobs per month over the same stretch.
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“Since December 2024, healthcare and social assistance has added ~855,000 jobs, while the rest of the private sector has lost -322,000. That means a single sector is masking a broad-based CONTRACTION across the rest of the world’s largest economy,” Global Markets Investor wrote. “Healthcare and social assistance now represents NEARLY ALL net private-sector job creation since the end of 2024.”
The March 2026 jobs report kept up the act. The economy added 178,000 nonfarm payrolls, but healthcare alone accounted for 76,000 of those positions.
“Remove one sector and the labor market is already in a RECESSION,” the post added.
This concentration raises a conundrum: without one sector propping up employment, the broader labor market may already resemble recessionary conditions, even as the headline figures grin and bear it.
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2026-04-06 07:51