Health care & social assistance

Of all the jobs within commuting reach of a tract, the share located in NAICS sector 62. The twenty sectors together account for the whole reachable pool, so this describes the mix of available work rather than its volume. See Accessible jobs for how the pool is defined.

The Census Bureau defines the sector as comprising "establishments providing health care and social assistance for individuals," and explains that the two are combined "because it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the boundaries of these two activities." The industries are "arranged on a continuum starting with establishments providing medical care exclusively, continuing with those providing health care and social assistance, and finally finishing with those providing only social assistance," united by "labor inputs of health practitioners or social workers with the requisite expertise" (2022 NAICS definitions).

That continuum is what to keep in mind when reading the number. Hospitals and physician practices sit in the same total as nursing and residential care, child day care, and individual and family services. A high share can mean a medical campus or a concentration of care and social service provision, and the measure does not separate them.

Most of this employment sits at fixed, licensed premises — hospitals, clinics, care homes, day care centers — which makes it one of the sectors whose reported workplace is least likely to differ from where the work is actually performed.