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Last month, we took a local look at the Metro Area's largest-employing industry sector: Health Care & Social Assistance
7/3/2025 11:49:31 AM
Tim O'Neill
Last month, we took a local look at the Metro Area's largest-employing industry sector: Health Care & Social Assistance. This month let's zoom into this industry's in-depth sectors and what they include.
The Health Care & Social Assistance industry is broken down into four main sectors: Ambulatory Health Care Services, Hospitals, Nursing & Residential Care Facilities and Social Assistance. Each of these sectors can be detailed even more. For example, Social Assistance is broken down into Individual & Family Services; Community Food & Housing, & Emergency & Other Relief Services; Vocational Rehabilitation Services; and Child Day Care Services. Zooming into these in-depth sectors allows for a greater understanding of what makes Health Care & Social Assistance unique in the Metro Area (Table 1).
| Table 1. Metro Area Health Care & Social Assistance Industry Employment, 2024 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NAICS Code | Industry Title | Number of Jobs | Share of Jobs | Number of Firms | Avg. Annual Wage | Job Change 2019 – 2024 | |
| Numeric | Percent | ||||||
| 0 | Total, All Industries | 1,763,350 | 100.0% | 94,804 | $81,068 | -13,089 | -0.7% |
| 62 | Health Care & Social Assistance | 304,298 | 17.3% | 14,721 | $66,196 | +25,351 | +9.1% |
| 621 | Ambulatory Health Care Services | 94,677 | 31.1% | 5,117 | $86,060 | +6,803 | +7.7% |
| 6211 | Offices of Physicians | 34,917 | 36.9% | 1,163 | $121,316 | +1,634 | +4.9% |
| 6212 | Offices of Dentists | 11,092 | 11.7% | 1,129 | $81,328 | +780 | +7.6% |
| 6213 | Offices of Other Health Practitioners | 13,620 | 14.4% | 1,659 | $56,420 | +2,246 | +19.7% |
| 6214 | Outpatient Care Centers | 8,223 | 8.7% | 311 | $103,532 | -5 | -0.1% |
| 6215 | Medical & Diagnostic Laboratories | 2,143 | 2.3% | 63 | $72,852 | +593 | +38.3% |
| 6216 | Home Health Care Services | 19,676 | 20.8% | 645 | $40,560 | +1,300 | +7.1% |
| 6219 | Other Ambulatory Health Care Services | 5,005 | 5.3% | 147 | $87,360 | +255 | +5.4% |
| 622 | Hospitals | 67,886 | 22.3% | 123 | $91,624 | -366 | -0.5% |
| 6221 | General Medical & Surgical Hospitals | 65,085 | 95.9% | 89 | $91,312 | -172 | -0.3% |
| 6222 | Psychiatric & Substance Abuse Hospitals | 1,276 | 1.9% | 9 | $98,072 | n/a | n/a |
| 6223 | Specialty (except Psychiatric & Substance Abuse) Hospitals | 1,524 | 2.2% | 26 | $100,308 | n/a | n/a |
| 623 | Nursing & Residential Care Facilities | 57,673 | 19.0% | 1,961 | $45,552 | +5,399 | 10.3% |
| 6231 | Nursing Care Facilities (Skilled Nursing Facilities) | 17,998 | 31.2% | 252 | $50,336 | -825 | -4.4% |
| 6232 | Residential Intellectual & Developmental Disability, Mental Health & Substance Abuse Facilities | 16,325 | 28.3% | 764 | $47,996 | +1,126 | +7.4% |
| 6233 | Continuing Care Retirement Communities & Assisted Living Facilities for the Elderly | 16,646 | 28.9% | 492 | $39,988 | +2,985 | +21.9% |
| 6239 | Other Residential Care Facilities | 6,703 | 11.6% | 454 | $40,560 | +2,112 | +46.0% |
| 624 | Social Assistance | 84,062 | 27.6% | 7,521 | $37,492 | +13,516 | +19.2% |
| 6241 | Individual and Family Services | 63,841 | 75.9% | 6,381 | $36,296 | +14,615 | +29.7% |
| 6242 | Community Food & Housing, & Emergency & Other Relief Services | 3,134 | 3.7% | 194 | $57,876 | +570 | +22.2% |
| 6243 | Vocational Rehabilitation Services | 4,037 | 4.8% | 142 | $48,776 | -2,589 | -39.1% |
| 6244 | Child Day Care Services | 13,050 | 15.5% | 805 | $35,048 | +920 | +7.6% |
| Source: DEED Quarterly Census of Employment & Wages | |||||||
Let's take Individual & Family Services as an example. According to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), this industry "comprises establishments primarily engaged in providing nonresidential social assistance to children and youth, the elderly, persons with disabilities and all other individuals and families." This sector not only makes up the lion's share (75.9%) of the Metro Area's total employment in Social Assistance, but it also happened to be the region's largest-growing in-depth Health Care sector between 2019 and 2024. During that five-year period, the sector gained over 14,600 jobs, growing by 29.7%. The next largest-growing subsector was Continuing Care Retirement Communities & Assisted Living Facilities for the Elderly, which gained about 3,000 jobs between 2019 and 2024. Those occupations that are highly concentrated in Individual & Family Services can also give a clue to what this sector comprises. Near the top those occupations include:
In one more example, Offices of Physicians accounts for well over one-third (36.7%) of the total employment in Ambulatory Health Care Services. The average annual wage for those 34,900 jobs found in this sector is considerably higher ($121,316) than the average annual wage for all Health Care & Social Assistance jobs located in the Metro Area ($66,196). While Offices of Physicians, of course, includes Physicians, other occupations highly concentrated in this sector include Medical Assistants, Medical Secretaries & Administrative Assistants, Registered Nurses, Nurse Practitioners and Receptionists and Information Clerks. While employment in Offices of Physicians grew at a faster rate (+4.9%) than total employment in the Metro Area between 2019 and 2024 (-0.7%), it was slightly behind the growth rate for Health Care & Social Assistance as a whole (+9.1%).
To discover more about Healthcare in the Twin Cities Metro Area, contact Tim O'Neill, Labor Market Analyst, at Timothy.ONeill@state.mn.us.
