3 high-level briefings: Healthcare is an employment anomaly | Nurses are burning out | Dr. Birx is bullish on health data

1. The latest federal jobs report brings good news to healthcare and social assistance, bad news to most other sectors. 

Released Friday, the employment situation summary from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows healthcare added around 21,000 workers in December. Some 16,000 of these went to work in hospitals. Also trending up in December were food services and drinking places. For just about every other sector, jobs growth either flattened or fell. Numerous workforce watchers were quick to note that, with overall 12-month growth of 584,000 jobs, 2025 was the worst by that economic metric since the pandemic and the worst year for hiring outside of a recession since 2003. 

• Strong as the showing is for healthcare in the Friday report, the overall numbers for all of 2025 were modest compared with 2024. That year the sector—our sector—added an average 56,000 employes per month. In 2025 the average monthly gain was 34,000, a drop of 39%. Meanwhile, interestingly, the healthcare-adjacent category of social assistance expanded payrolls by around 17,000 positions in December 2025. Of these, most (13,000) were in individual and family services, the BLS report shows. 
   
• Healthcare alone added about 405,000 jobs in 2025 while social assistance contributed roughly 308,000. Take away two sectors, and the broader labor market would have ended up with a net jobs subtraction for 2025. “Job creation remains narrow and uneven,” remarks Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate, in a LinkedIn post. “Healthcare, social assistance and food service continue to carry most of the weight.” His advice for jobseekers and others navigating the choppy waters includes this point: “Stay alert to sector trends: Industries tied to services, care and hospitality remain the most active in hiring.”
   
• The BLS itself looks on the bright side. “Both payroll employment (+50,000) and unemployment rate (4.4%) change[d] little in December,” the agency pointed out Jan. 9 on X. 
   
• Some 713,000 jobs were added in healthcare and social assistance in 2025, while the latter two sectors lost 97,000 and 68,000 jobs, respectively. These figures are spotlighted by Laura Ullrich, director of economic research in North America at the Indeed Hiring Lab. “Indeed data supports this pattern, as job postings remain elevated in almost all healthcare occupations but are below pre-COVID levels in sectors including human resources, marketing and data and analytics,” Ullrich underscores. “This highly concentrated job growth only helps to further sideline and lengthen the job hunt for job seekers looking for work outside of the small handful of growing sectors.” 
   
  • More angles reported, emphasized, downplayed or otherwise commented on here.

2. Over the past month, 3 of 4 nurses have worked mandatory overtime three or more times. The exact same ratio reports feeling emotionally exhausted from work multiple times a week. Coincidence? 

The findings are from a survey of 1,000 RNs across the U.S. The project was conducted by researchers at Joyce University of Nursing & Health Sciences in Utah. The school posted the results Jan. 5. More from the survey report: 

• Young nurses seem to be burning out faster than older colleagues. In the Joyce U survey, Gen Z respondents reported the highest rate of daily emotional exhaustion (28%), compared with 25% of Millennials, 22% of Baby Boomers and 17% of Gen X respondents. “Together, these findings align with broader research indicating that younger and early-career nurses may face elevated burnout and turnover risk relative to older cohorts,” the report’s author remark. 
   
• The drive to keep up with job duties often overrides the instinct to also take care of one’s own self. More than half the surveyed nurses, 55%, say they regularly skip meals or breaks on most shifts because they are “too busy.” For many respondents, “basic needs are set aside to keep pace with workload demands, leaving little time for rest, recovery or self-care routines,” the authors note. “These findings occur against the backdrop of ongoing staffing shortages that continue to stretch healthcare systems across the country.”
   
• Fear of judgment keeps young nurses from seeking help. Citing data from the American Nurses Foundation, the Joyce researchers note that nurse utilization of even readily available mental-health resources is low. Concerns about stigma, confidentiality and/or career impact discourage many nurses from telling anyone at work that they’re struggling. “This pattern also appeared in our findings, particularly regarding new nurses entering the field: 1 in 4 Gen Z respondents (25%) with access to employer-provided mental health support said they chose not to use it due to these same concerns,” the authors write. “This reluctance comes at a time when hospitals are placing greater emphasis on retention, resilience and workplace wellbeing.”
   
  • The rest of the key findings are posted here.

3. Public health data should be publicly available. And while we’re at it, let’s make it more visual—and more actionable at the community level. After all, that’s where the most consequential public health decisions should be made.

This is the opinion of Deborah Birx, MD, best known as the coordinator of the White House Coronavirus Task Force during the first Trump administration. Taking to the pages of STAT Jan. 5, Dr. Birx backs her call with some compelling arguments. Among these:

• Too often, federal agencies have defaulted to modeling instead of capturing comprehensive, real-world data. This presents a “potentially inaccurate picture of what is happening on the ground, especially in rural areas, which has serious implications for what policies and public health strategies are implemented,” writes Birx, who has held other federal health posts and is board-certified in internal medicine, allergy and immunology, and diagnostic and clinical laboratory immunology. “Fortunately, nonfederal public health innovators are creating more modern systems.”
   
• People can’t consume public health through spreadsheets. They need intuitive graphics and dashboards, just as a radar map shows storm intensity in seconds with colors, Birx maintains. “The private sector can help. Companies with expertise in design, data visualization and communication could partner with public health departments to transform raw numbers into tools people use.”
   
• Critics may argue that empowering local decision-making requires vast new resources. It doesn’t, Birx states. “The real need is for better data collection and smarter sharing,” she says. “Syndromic and disease surveillance systems evolving to require laboratory definitive diagnosis would act as a force multiplier, especially for rural and resource-limited communities.” The private sector is eager to partner, Birx adds. “What’s missing is the political will to prioritize transparency and decentralization.”
   
  • Hear her out in full. 

Also worthwhile:

• Huge study links 99% of heart attacks and strokes with 4 risk factors (Science Alert) 
   
• Will the U.S. lose its measles elimination status in 2026? (U.S. News & World Report)
   
• New CDC stance on kids’ vaccines isn’t ‘anti-science’—it’s pro-parent (New York Post) 

From HealthExec’s sibling outlets:

• Health insurer Highmark will provide 100% coverage for all diagnostic breast imaging (Radiology Business)
   
• The business of cardiology is changing—and cath labs are working to keep up (Cardiovascular Business)