Employment
As the largest industry in 2006, health care provided 14 million jobs—13.6 million jobs for wage and salary workers and about 438,000 jobs for self-employed and unpaid family workers. Of the 13.6 million wage and salary jobs, 40 percent were in hospitals; another 21 percent were in nursing and residential care facilities; and 16 percent were in offices of physicians. The majority of jobs for self-employed and unpaid family workers in health care were in offices of physicians, dentists, and other health practitioners—about 295,000 out of the 438,000 total self-employed.
Health care jobs are found throughout the country, but they are concentrated in the largest States—in particular, California, New York, Florida, Texas, and Pennsylvania.
Workers in health care tend to be older than workers in other industries. Health care workers also are more likely to remain employed in the same occupation, in part because of the high level of education and training required for many health occupations.