As Obama readies jobs plan, health sector leads pack

President Barack Obama will unveil a new jobs plan today. News outlets report on how health jobs are one clear area of promise.

CQ HealthBeat: Health Care Hiring Leads The Pack As Obama Prepares To Unveil Jobs Plan
A depressing August jobs report showed stagnant employment in most areas -; but not health care. The number of jobs in that sector increased by 30,000, to 14.1 million, last month, reported the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). During the past 12 months, the number of health care jobs grew by 306,000. Health employment is a ray of light compared to August's unchanged jobs picture in fields such as manufacturing, construction, and leisure and hospitality (Norman, 9/7).

Bloomberg: Massachusetts Health-Jobs Surge May Signal Similar Growth Under U.S. Law
A rise in health care jobs after Massachusetts instituted a universal insurance program may foreshadow national employment growth under the U.S. health overhaul, a study found. Health care employment climbed 9.5 percent per capita in Massachusetts from December 2005 to September 2010, outpacing 5.5 percent growth in the rest of the U.S., according to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine today. New jobs in administration drove rising health care employment, wrote Douglas Staiger, an economist at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, and colleagues (Young, 9/7).