Key points:
- Job postings are elevated compared to pre-pandemic levels in a small majority (54%) of sectors analyzed by Indeed, but overall job growth has been concentrated in just a handful of sectors that are typically female-dominated.
- The US added 3.5 million jobs between July 2023 and July 2025, a two-year growth rate of just 2.3% — the lowest such rate in a decade (excluding the volatile Covid-19 period).
- Of the 3.5 million jobs added over the past two years, more than 38% (1.35 million) have been female-held jobs in healthcare and social assistance.
Our monthly Labor Market Update examines important trends using Indeed and other labor market data. Our US Labor Market Overview chartbook provides a more comprehensive view of the US labor market. Data from our Job Postings Index — which stood 6.8% above its pre-pandemic baseline as of August 8 — and the Indeed Wage Tracker (including sector-level data) are regularly updated and can be accessed on our data portal.
US job growth fell to its lowest two-year rate in a decade in July (outside of the volatile pandemic period). What growth there has been over the past couple of years has been concentrated in just a handful of sectors — notably healthcare and social assistance — that are typically female-dominated.
Of the 3.5 million jobs added nationwide between July 2023 and July 2025, 1.35 million of them (more than 38%) have been female-held jobs in healthcare and social assistance, according to a Hiring Lab analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This super-concentrated growth among a single demographic in a single industry underscores the uneven nature of the post-pandemic jobs recovery and the unequal distribution of opportunities in the current labor market. Conditions look significantly different for those workers who currently have a job and/or those working in the most in-demand sectors (like healthcare) than those stuck on the outside looking in at these lopsided dynamics……
The post August 2025 Labor Market Update: How Healthcare Roles (and the Women Who Occupy Them) Are Propping Up the Labor Market appeared first on Indeed Hiring Lab.