Health Care Jobs Continue To Grow In USA

The United States jobless rate rose to 7.2 percent in December, the highest in 16 years. The official data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was full of gloomy reading apart from the American health care industry, which added jobs in December.

In December, American job losses were large and widespread across most major industry sectors. Most job losses for the month were in the service sector, which shed 273,000 jobs. Manufacturing employment fell by 149,000, the largest month on month decline since August 2001. Employment in construction fell by 101,000 and retailers cut staff by 67,000 in December.

Health care employment continued to grow in December (32,000), with month on month job gains in ambulatory services (14,000) and hospitals (12,000). In 2008, the health care industry added 372,000 jobs.

The average weekly hours worked in December fell by 0.2 hours to 33.3 hours; the lowest level since records began in 1964.

“The drop in average hours worked in this employment report suggests that the first quarter is going to be very, very weak,” said Cary Leahey, economist at Decision Economics.

For those in work, over the past 12 months average weekly earnings rose 2.2 percent. The information industry, which lost 20,000 jobs in December, recorded the largest annual increase in weekly earnings at 11 percent.

American wages haven risen sharply in terms of Sterling, as the pound has weakened considerably against the US Dollar recently.

December 2008 earnings not seasonally adjusted

Industry	Average Weekly Earnings $ (£)	12 Month % change
Natural resources and mining	1012 (664)	1.9
Construction	839 (551)	1.6
Manufacturing/Durable Goods	770 (506)	-0.2
Manufacturing/Nondurable Goods	659 (433)	0.4
Wholesale trade	768 (504)	-1.5
Retail trade	384 (252)	-0.5
Transportation and warehousing	677 (445)	-0.2
Utilities	1248 (819)	2.2
Information	919 (603)	11.0
Financial activities	732 (481)	0.7
Professional and business services	764 (502)	5.0
Education and health services	616 (404)	1.5
Leisure and hospitality	272 (179)	-0.3
Other services	489 (321)	0.1

exchange rate used £1.00 = $1.523