By Jennifer Liu

Copyright cnbc

As for people moving into new jobs, health-care workers continue to have more options than other workers.

While health-care jobs in the health-care industry, like at hospitals and medical facilities, are weak, openings for these roles in public administration “increased significantly,” Bachaud says. That’s because more local public health authorities are looking to “transition through a lot of the changes that are happening at the federal level.”

State and local governments need health-care staff to “be ready to respond to new policy initiatives and to be a resource for people in their communities, especially as we’re getting into flu season when public health authorities are typically busier,” she says.

Health-care jobs in other areas including personal care, nonprofits and domestic services are also up.

“There’s always a huge demand for people in the health-care industry,” Bachaud says. “We’re just seeing a little bit more dispersion outside of a hospital or a health-care employer,” like at local government bodies, retail pharmacies and med spas.

While much of health-care hiring is driven by necessity, anticipatory hiring is picking up in retail and transportation for employers to get ahead of the holiday shopping season, signaling that businesses expect consumer spending to be strong through the rest of the year.

“There’s still a big risk with tariffs increasing prices” that could drive households to spend less, Bachaud says. However, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates for the first time in 2025 on Wednesday. The move is intended to help businesses grow by reducing the cost of borrowing and encourage consumer spending.

Given the move, “and the anticipation that we’re going to see additional cuts to the Fed funds rate throughout the rest of this year,” Bachaud says “we might see more business activity and hiring picking up as we get into the end of 2025.”

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