Recovery of Health Care Job Growth Post-Pandemic Reaches Pre-2020 Levels by 2024
Despite initial declines during the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare employment fully recovered by 2024, surpassing pre-pandemic levels, according to recent research.
The COVID-19 pandemic initially caused a significant decline in employment within the health care sector, but recent research indicates a full recovery has been achieved by 2024. According to a study published in the AMA of June 2025, researchers analyzed employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics covering 2016 to 2024. They compared observed employment levels with projections based on pre-pandemic trends to assess the pandemic's impact.
The study found that health care employment dropped by approximately 6.9% between late 2019 and mid-2020, during the initial phase of the pandemic. However, by the third quarter of 2024, employment levels in healthcare had rebounded, reaching within 0.2% of the predicted employment figures had the pandemic not occurred.
Compared to non-health care sectors, which saw a sharper decline of 11.4% below predicted levels in early 2020 and a slower recovery to 2.9% below forecast by 2024, the health care sector demonstrated resilience. The recovery patterns varied among different subsectors within healthcare, but overall, employment growth within this sector not only recovered but exceeded initial declines.
Experts suggest that the unique stability of health care employment may be linked to insurance coverage and sustained demand for health services, even amidst economic fluctuations. This trend highlights the sector's crucial role in stability and employment resilience during times of crisis.
For more detailed insights, the full study titled "Health Care Workforce Recovery After the End of the COVID-19 Emergency" is available in the AMA publication.
Source: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-06-health-job-growth-pandemic-recovered.html
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