Healthcare records 80K+ new jobs in January

According to new data from the Labor Department, the United States added 130,000 new jobs across all industries in January. Of these jobs, 82,000 were in healthcare, making it the industry leader.

The growth in jobs in January was a significant improvement from 2025, when many industries saw tempered growth or even losses. Healthcare was also an outlier during this time, recording more growth than any other industry.

"There were only 181,000 jobs added over the course of 2025, whereas healthcare and social assistance added 693,000 jobs," said Daniel Zhao, chief economist for Glassdoor. "That's a difference of almost half a million jobs, which means that all other industries except for healthcare actually lost half a million jobs."

In January, home healthcare and physician offices saw the greatest increase in jobs. However, medical laboratories saw a slight decrease in jobs from December to January.

"We are seeing the need for more healthcare opportunities, whether that be physicians or emergent care needs," said Tina Jackson, chief people officer at Beaufort Memorial.

Commentary

According to Laura Ulrich, director of economic jobs research at Indeed, healthcare is "way outperforming the rest of the economy."

However, she also noted that healthcare's strong growth in January should be viewed with caution. "It's great that healthcare is growing the way it is, but I would feel much better if we were seeing broader strength," Ulrich said. "It is quite lopsided growth."

Separately, Sari Gillen, a healthcare recruiter at Goodwin Recruiting, said "it's a race to the finish line" for employers since demand for certain healthcare workers, like nurses and nurse practitioners, is currently so strong. Many healthcare employers have had to outbid each other, offering large signing bonuses and generous paid time off, to hire workers.

However, even as healthcare jobs grow nationally, many health systems have had to tightly manage their spending on labor and even reduce their workforce in some cases. So far this year, almost a dozen hospitals and health systems have announced job cuts, with many citing reimbursement pressures, funding changes, and efforts to improve their finances and operational efficiency.

Changes to immigration policy could also impact the healthcare workforce.

In September, President Donald Trump issued an executive order implementing a $100,000 fee for any new H-1B visa petition. Healthcare employers often use H-1B visas to sponsor medical residents and physicians. In fiscal year 2024, almost 17,000 H1-B visas were granted for medicine and health roles, with around half going to physicians and surgeons.  

"The prohibitive increase in H-1B application fees will disproportionately affect rural and socioeconomically disadvantaged communities, which already experience the greatest healthcare workforce shortages," wrote Tarun Ramesh, from Massachusetts General Hospital, and colleagues in a study on the impact of the new H1-B visa fee on the healthcare workforce. "Physicians on H-1B visas are far more likely than their domestic counterparts to fill critical gaps in healthcare delivery systems, such as primary care and psychiatry."