A view of what is going on out there
What's Really Propping Up The Economy
Since 2001, the health-care industry has added 1.7 million jobs. The rest of the private sector? None
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But the very real problems with the health-care system mask a simple fact: Without it the nation's labor market would be in a deep coma. Since 2001, 1.7 million new jobs have been added in the health-care sector, which includes related industries such as pharmaceuticals and health insurance. Meanwhile, the number of private-sector jobs outside of health care is no higher than it was five years ago.
Sure, housing has been a bonanza for homebuilders, real estate agents, and mortgage brokers. Together they have added more than 900,000 jobs since 2001. But the pressures of globalization and new technology have wreaked havoc on the rest of the labor market: Factories are still closing, retailers are shrinking, and the finance and insurance sector, outside of real estate lending and health insurers, has generated few additional jobs.
Perhaps most surprising, information technology, the great electronic promise of the 1990s, has turned into one of the biggest job-growth disappointments of all time. Despite the splashy success of companies such as Google ( ) and Yahoo! ( ), businesses at the core of the information economy -- software, semiconductors, telecom, and the whole gamut of Web companies -- have lost more than 1.1 million jobs in the past five years. Those businesses employ fewer Americans today than they did in 1998, when the Internet frenzy kicked into high gear.
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Re: A view of what is going on out there
^^^ Yes several articles on this subject were released after last week's stats. Why do I get the feeling that direct plus indirect public sector jobs (like health care) are all that will be left in America a few years from now ?
Re: A view of what is going on out there
Given the fact that more people are losing their employer healthcare and that private insurance cost is almost prohibitive I'm wondering if the healthcare industry will continue this growth. The trend seems to be toward fewer benefits at work and ever steeper premiums shutting out many consumers from having healthcare insurance at all. Most of us are stuck waiting until a small problem becomes so serious we can't ignore it or we're hit with a true emergency.
Re: A view of what is going on out there
^^^ be that as it may, treating those 'serious problems' is highly profitable for the health care industry ... where 'preventative medicine' isn't.
Re: A view of what is going on out there
^^^^^ LOL Absolutely right! Another funny thing I heard is that some ins. companies are forcing people to get surgery and other spendy treatments out of the USA because the work is much cheaper in India for example.
Re: A view of what is going on out there
^^^ to be totally accurate, it is SELF-insured businesses who are sending major surgery patients to hospitals in Thailand etc. The mainstream insurance companies are essentially locked into US hospitals (which makes financial sense since the insurance company profit is partially based on a percentage of total dollars paid out for medical treatments and eventually charged back to US employers via insurance premiums rising the following year)