Healthcare Added 519,000 Jobs While Information Shed 119,000

US healthcare and social assistance added 519,000 jobs over the 12 months through October, while the Information sector lost 119,000 over the same period, according to industry-level nonfarm payrolls data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That spread — a 638,000-job gap between the two — is the clearest map of where American hiring is actually happening.

The BLS classifies jobs by work location and each facility's primary activity (its NAICS code). A warehouse job at an Amazon fulfillment center, for example, counts under Transportation and warehousing, not Retail. Keep that in mind when reading the sector numbers below.

Which industries are hiring?

Healthcare leads by a wide margin. The sector employs 24.0 million people and added 55,000 in October alone, plus 104,000 over three months. Takeaway: healthcare remains the single most reliable jobs engine in the US economy.

Professional and business services — which includes tech, AI, social media and many government contractors — employs 22.60 million. It added 70,000 month-to-month, 108,000 over three months and 269,000 over 12 months. Some contractors lost federal work amid DOGE cutbacks in 2025 and 2026, and the sector's October 2025 reading marked its low point after pandemic-era over-hiring was unwound.

Government is the other big story, and it's shrinking fast at the federal level:

• Federal government: 2.68 million jobs, down 333,000 (11% of payrolls) since January 2025. Federal jobs now make up 1.68% of total nonfarm payrolls — the lowest share in data going back to 1939.
• State government: 5.48 million jobs, down 46,000 since January 2025, pressured partly by declining university enrollment, especially of foreign students.
• Local government: 15.18 million jobs, up 27,000 over 12 months, though its share of payrolls has fallen to 9.5% from 10.5% two decades ago.

Which industries are losing jobs?

Information — web portals, data processing, software publishing, film, broadcasting and telecom — has been hit hardest. Employment fell to 2.73 million, back to 2015 levels, with losses of 33,000 over three months. Many of those workers aren't unemployed; they've shifted to locations classified under finance or professional services, doing similar work.

Financial activities lost 99,000 jobs over 12 months, down to 9.08 million, with real-estate-related jobs crushed since 2022. Arts, entertainment and recreation shed 38,000 over the year to 2.66 million. Takeaway: media, real estate and entertainment are where job seekers face the toughest odds.

What about manufacturing and construction?

Manufacturing employs 12.68 million, up 19,000 month-to-month and 78,000 over 12 months — modest growth despite decades of automation and globalization. The US remains the world's second-largest manufacturing nation by value added, per World Bank and Bureau of Economic Analysis data, larger than Japan, Germany, India and South Korea combined — though far behind China. Semiconductor plants illustrate the model: high-dollar output, small and highly paid STEM workforces.

Construction employs 8.37 million. It lost 3,000 jobs in October but gained 124,000 over 12 months. Single-family and multifamily building is slowing under a pile-up of new supply, and office construction is kneecapped by the commercial real estate meltdown. But AI data center and factory construction is booming, triggering labor shortages in skilled trades, especially electricians.

Full sector scoreboard

• Leisure and hospitality: 16.96 million; -13,000 monthly; +16,000 yearly.
• Retail trade: 15.50 million; +6,000 monthly; +63,000 yearly. Brick-and-mortar has been slammed by e-commerce, though food, gasoline, auto and cannabis retailers keep growing.
• Transportation and warehousing: 6.64 million; +25,000 monthly; +17,000 yearly.
• Wholesale trade: 6.07 million; -9,000 monthly; +14,000 yearly.
• Other services (repair, personal care, pet care, and more): 6.05 million; +46,000 yearly.
• Utilities: 612,000 jobs — tiny workforce, big economic footprint — on a hiring boom since 2021 as data centers drive electricity demand.

What does this mean for your job search?

If you're in healthcare, a trade tied to data center or factory construction, or utilities, the market is tight in your favor. If you're in Information, real estate or the federal government, the data says expect contraction, not expansion, and consider adjacent sectors where your skills transfer — that's exactly where the displaced workers already went. Wolf Richter, who analyzed the BLS data for Wolf Street, frames the backdrop as a labor market piling up "signs of a solid and tightening" overall picture, with the damage and the growth concentrated in very different industries heading into 2026.