Although hiring across the U.S. remains robust, some job sectors are positively red-hot.
Demand for health care workers — specifically physicians and surgeons — is up 87% compared with February 2020, or just before the pandemic, according to new data from job site Indeed. Hiring for other health care roles, such as mental health therapists as well as and personal care and home health workers, are also up substantially, by 82% and 67%, respectively.
"No matter how the economy is doing, people are always going to want or need health care," Indeed economist Cory Stahle told CBS MoneyWatch. "It's interesting that we've been seeing this trend for a couple years, and we haven't seen it turn around yet."
By contrast, companies in other sectors that went on hiring sprees during the pandemic have pulled back. Demand for software developers has fallen 31% compared to before the pandemic, while jobs in information design and documentation — roles that are conducive to remote work — have also slumped, Indeed's data shows.
"They shot up so high during the pandemic when people were working from home, and now they are rebalancing," Stahle said. "It has come down after a hiring spree."
Of the 46 sectors Indeed analyzed, here are the five sectors with the biggest jump in job postings since February 2020:
- Physicians and surgeons (87%)
- Therapy (82%)
- Personal care and home health (67%)
- Civil engineering (65%)
- Sports (48%) (includes coaches, personal trainers, physical therapists)
Here are five sectors where job postings on Indeed have fallen sharply compared with just before the pandemic:
- Software development (-31%)
- Information design and documentation (-31%)
- Media and communications (-23%)
- Mathematics (-23%)
- Marketing (-22%)
Overall, the U.S. labor market remains healthy, government data shows. The nation's unemployment rate in September fell to 4.1%, up from a 55-year-low of 3.4% in April of 2023, but low by historical benchmarks.
Notably, hiring was strong across a range of industries, with nearly 58% of private industries adding jobs last month, according to Oxford Economics.
Employee pay has also accelerated as the economy recovers from the pandemic. Between February 2020 and September of this year, wages for workers in production and nonsupervisory roles rose a total of more than 26%, according to a new analysis from the Center for American Progress.
Consumer prices over that period climbed a total of 21.4%, the liberal-leaning think tank found.
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