LANSING – Health care, not autos or manufacturing, is Michigan’s largest employer, providing nearly three quarters of a million direct and indirect jobs that pump $29.8 billion a year into the state’s economy, contends a new study by the Partnership for Michigan’s Health.
Michigan health care workers and their employers also pay more than $8 billion annually in taxes, shows the study, Economic Impact of Health Care in Michigan.
The study quantifies the substantial economic impact of health care in the state. The study is an analysis of data compiled by the Minnesota IMPLAN(R) Group, Inc., and includes data and information from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the U.S. Bureau of Labor, and the U.S. Census Bureau. The study was released at the 25th annual Detroit Chamber of Commerce Mackinac Policy Conference on Mackinac Island. Key findings include:
With more than 472,300 direct jobs, health care is Michigan’s largest single employer. As a sector, total direct health care employment exceeds
Michigan’s agricultural and automotive manufacturing sectors.
Michigan’s direct health care workers earn about $21.2 billion a year
in wages, salaries and benefits.
More than 254,340 Michigan citizens work in jobs that are indirectly
related to health care or induced by the health care sector.
Michigan’s indirect and induced health care workers earn about $8.6
billion a year in wages, salaries and benefits.
Direct, indirect and induced health care jobs total more than 726,640
in Michigan.
Wages, salaries and benefits for direct, indirect and induced health
care jobs total $29.8 billion in Michigan.
58 Michigan counties have more than 1,000 direct health care jobs.
19 Michigan counties have more than 5,000 direct health care jobs.
14 Michigan counties have more than 10,000 direct health care jobs.
“With our economy in transition, health care is emerging as Michigan’s most important source of good jobs,” said Spencer Johnson, president of the Michigan Health & Hospital Association (MHA). “The investment Michigan makes in health care supports the delivery of life-saving services and supports more jobs than any other sector in Michigan.”
