April 2016 Health Sector Economic Indicators Briefs

National health spending in February 2016 was 4.8% higher than health spending in February 2015. While this rate is somewhat higher than the 4.5% growth observed in both December 2015 and January 2016, February is the fourth consecutive month in which it has been below 5%. Health care prices in February 2016 were 1.7% higher than in February 2015, up from 1.6% in January and the highest rate since September 2014. And consistent with recent patterns, health jobs grew 3.4% year over year while nonhealth jobs grew 1.8%, increasing the health share of total employment to a new, all-time high of 10.73%.