Steadily resist the recession … health care

The one sector that continues to steadily resist the recession forces is health care, which added 23,000 jobs last month and 363,000 over the past year. Health care services are generally considered to be “inelastically demanded,” i.e., spending on health is non-discretionary, and there is also considerable demographic pressure as the population ages. Moreover, health-care spending can be publicly subsidized, as with Medicare, or paid for by insurance, so it is less susceptible to paycheck pressures. …. more