The Force Behind the March Labor Report: Healthcare Jobs -- WSJ

Dow Jones04-04

By Jeanne Whalen

Friday's jobs report showed once again why healthcare jobs, including nursing, are the most reliable tickets to middle-class prosperity.

Many of the jobs the U.S. economy added in March were in healthcare, a field that has provided some of the most consistent job growth since the 1980s. Total jobs in the industry overtook those in the manufacturing and retail sectors in the early 2000s, and the gap has continued to widen since then, according to an analysis of federal data released by the University of Chicago.

The median annual wage for registered nurses in the U.S. is $93,600, compared with $49,500 for all occupations, according to the Labor Department. For nurse practitioners and others with advanced degrees, it is $132,050.

A recent research paper found that from 1980 through 2022, earnings of healthcare workers rose much faster than for non-healthcare workers -- particularly for nurses.

The paper also found that compared with the rest of the workforce, wage growth in healthcare over that period was more evenly distributed across all pay levels, with particularly strong gains for middle- and upper-middle-income workers.

The U.S. healthcare sector is "a modern middle-class jobs engine," said Joshua Gottlieb, a University of Chicago economics professor who co-wrote the paper.

Write to Jeanne Whalen at Jeanne.Whalen@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 03, 2026 12:05 ET (16:05 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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Total jobs in the industry overtook those in the manufacturing and retail sectors in the early 2000s, and the gap has continued to widen since then, according to an analysis of federal data released by the University of Chicago. \n\n\n  The median annual wage for registered nurses in the U.S. is $93,600, compared with $49,500 for all occupations, according to the Labor Department. 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