Healthcare and social care set to create more than one in three new US jobs over next decade

Healthcare and social assistance is expected to dominate job creation in the United States over the next decade, with more than 2.2 million new roles projected as an ageing population drives increasing demand for care.

New projections from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimate that total employment will increase by around 5.9 million jobs between 2025 and 2035. Private healthcare and social assistance alone is expected to account for around 37% of that growth, adding substantially more jobs than any other major industry.

Employment across healthcare and social assistance is projected to grow by 9.5% over the decade, compared with growth of 3.5% across the economy as a whole. Although utilities is expected to grow slightly faster in percentage terms, healthcare and social assistance will create far more jobs because of the size of its existing workforce.

Much of the increase will be driven by demographic change. As the US population ages, demand is expected to rise for healthcare, support with daily living, chronic disease management and community-based services, with some of the strongest growth taking place outside hospitals.

Services for older people and people with disabilities are projected to add more than 625,000 jobs by 2035. Home health and personal care aides are expected to see particularly significant growth, with employment rising from around 4.68 million in 2025 to approximately 5.52 million by 2035.

That would mean more than 847,000 additional home health and personal care aide jobs over the decade. The BLS also expects around 760,500 openings for these roles every year when vacancies created by people leaving the occupation are included.

Healthcare support occupations are projected to be the fastest-growing major occupational group in the US, increasing by 13.3%, while healthcare practitioners and technical occupations are expected to grow by 8%.

Nurse practitioners are projected to be the fastest-growing occupation in the entire US economy, with employment increasing by 41% between 2025 and 2035. Medical and health services managers are expected to grow by more than 24%, while physician assistants, psychiatric technicians, occupational therapy assistants and mental health counsellors are also among the professions forecast to expand rapidly.

The projections reflect growing demand not only for physical healthcare but also for behavioural and mental health services. Community and social service occupations are expected to grow by 7.4%, significantly faster than the average across the wider economy.

The figures also highlight a continuing workforce challenge within social care. While home health and personal care aides are expected to account for a large proportion of future recruitment, median annual pay for the occupation was $35,800 in May 2025, compared with $50,980 across all US occupations.

That gap raises questions about whether the sector will be able to recruit and retain enough people to meet expected demand. Care roles can involve physically and emotionally demanding work, irregular schedules and relatively low pay, while the number of vacancies created by staff leaving the profession is expected to remain extremely high.

Higher-skilled healthcare professions face a different challenge. Expanding the workforce of nurse practitioners, physician assistants, therapists and other specialist clinicians requires years of training, meaning workforce planning will need to keep pace with rapidly increasing demand.

The healthcare jobs boom also stands out against a wider labour market being reshaped by artificial intelligence and automation. The BLS expects technology to alter employment across many industries, but much of healthcare and social care continues to depend on direct human interaction that is difficult to replace.

Technology may increasingly support diagnosis, administration and remote monitoring, but caring for an older person at home, providing therapy or supporting someone with a disability remains heavily dependent on people.

The projections are not a guarantee of exactly how the US workforce will look by 2035, with economic conditions, immigration, healthcare policy and technology all capable of changing demand.

They do, however, point to a clear direction of travel. America is expected to need millions more healthcare and social care workers over the next decade, and the biggest challenge may not be creating the jobs but finding, training and retaining enough people to fill them.

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