by Jeroslyn JoVonn
August 15, 2025
Two job sectors are showing some promise amid a nationwide hiring cooldown.
The job market might be shaky, but two industries are currently offering opportunities for qualified workers seeking employment.
Economists report that healthcare and social assistance are defying the broader hiring slowdown, ABC News reports. The two sectors are emerging as the only industries to show job growth over the past three months.
“This is a job market where growth is very thin,” said Daniel Zhao, chief economist at job-posting site Glassdoor. “Unfortunately, there aren’t many industries growing consistently and robustly.”
“The job market is being propped up by healthcare and social assistance,” Zhao added.
Ongoing demand for healthcare from an aging population and recovery from COVID-19-related job losses are driving growth in the health sector, while rising needs for services such as childcare and counseling are boosting social assistance roles amid a struggling economy.
“We do expect job growth in healthcare to continue as the U.S. population ages and demand for health services continues to rise,” Zhao said.
The healthcare sector added 55,000 jobs in July, accounting for three of every four jobs created across the U.S. economy last month. This continues a period of strong growth that has lasted several years, economists say, as healthcare remains a necessity for consumers regardless of economic conditions.
“Healthcare is a non-optional industry,” says Cory Stahle, an economist at Indeed Hiring Lab. “If you need healthcare, you need healthcare.”
Social assistance, which provides support and emergency relief services, added 18,000 jobs in July, nearly one in four of all jobs created last month. All of these new positions came from the “individual and family services” segment, which includes counseling, welfare, and referral services.
Employers have continued hiring therapists despite the cooldown in the job market. Should the economy slip into a recession, the sector is expected to keep growing, as more people would require assistance during financial hardship.
“This is a sector that grows even during bad times, because there is a demand for more social assistance when the economy is poor and people do need those services,” Zhao said.
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