Health Care and Social Assistance

Consider a Career in Health Care and Social Assistance

Health care and social assistance, also known as the Caring Professions, employs people who provide care for others, including Personal Care Aides, Physical Therapists, Nursing Assistants, Childcare Workers, Physicians and many other roles. More than 511,500 people work in health care and social assistance in Minnesota, making it the largest employing industry in the state, accounting for more than one in every six jobs in 2023. 

Average annual wages were just under $65,000 in 2023, which was about $6,500 below the average across all industries, however wages vary widely by job in this field. There are a range of jobs in this field from entry level, which can often be started with a high school diploma or less and employer provided training up to very highly paid positions that require many years of postsecondary education. 

People with skills and experience in this field are in high demand now and are projected to remain in high demand for the foreseeable future. In fact, there were more than 36,000 job vacancies in this industry in 2023, as employers struggled to find workers to fill open jobs. According to DEED’s long-term projections, the health care and social assistance industry is expected to add more than 41,000 new jobs over the next decade, in addition to hundreds of thousands of openings when people retire or leave this field.