Which industries saw the biggest job gains or losses between 2024 and 2025?
Executive summary
Major job gains between 2024 and early 2025 were concentrated in health care, leisure & hospitality, and government; health care added an average 57,000 jobs per month in 2024 and was a top source of monthly gains late in the year [1]. Multiple data series show the net private‑sector picture was mixed: gross job gains and losses each ran in the 7–8 million range quarterly in 2024, producing small net changes and indicating high churn even in sectors with net growth [2] [3]. Independent analysts (Indeed, J.P. Morgan) flag concentration of 2024 hiring in a few industries and uneven sectoral momentum heading into 2025 [4] [5].
1. Health care: the largest and most consistent engine of hires
Health care & social assistance was the clearest source of sustained hiring in 2024 and into 2025, with health care adding 46,000 payroll jobs in December 2024 and averaging 57,000 jobs per month across 2024 — the same average monthly gain as in 2023 — making it a dominant contributor to overall payroll growth [1]. The BLS and employment‑projection materials also identify health care as a long‑run growth sector, reinforcing pandemic‑era trends toward increased demand for home and residential care [1] [6].
2. Leisure & hospitality and government: big contributors but volatile
Indeed’s Hiring Lab reported that almost 75% of jobs added in the prior 12 months were concentrated in health care & social assistance, government, and leisure & hospitality, underscoring how much of 2024’s net job creation depended on a small set of industries [4]. J.P. Morgan’s read of early‑2025 payrolls likewise shows gains concentrated in health care, transportation & warehousing, and leisure & hospitality — signaling that hospitality remained a major hiring sector even as overall hiring cooled [5].
3. High churn beneath modest net changes: millions hired and separated each quarter
Business Employment Dynamics (BED) data show massive gross flows: between March–June 2024 gross job losses were 7.8 million and gross job gains 7.6 million; June–September 2024 both were about 7.6 million. Those magnitudes produced relatively small net private‑sector shifts while revealing intense turnover across industries [2] [3]. The fourth quarter summary notes gross losses exceeded gains in 8 of 13 major sectors — a reminder that headline net job totals hide sizable reallocation [7].
4. Sectors with softer gains or weakness: retail, manufacturing, and parts of tech
Retail’s performance in 2024 was mixed: retail employment “changed little” over the year despite monthly swings — e.g., retail added 43,000 jobs in December following November declines — showing volatility rather than steady growth [1]. Outside BLS releases, hiring‑index and private analysts flagged weakness in manufacturing/production postings and steep declines in some job categories, though the specific largest losers between 2024–25 are not enumerated in the provided federal releases [4]. Available sources do not mention a definitive ranked list of “biggest losses” by industry for 2024–25.
5. What analysts and projections warn about through 2025
Private reports and projections emphasize concentration risk and structural shifts: Indeed warned the concentration of hiring in a few industries could become problematic if those industries “run out of steam” in 2025 [4]. BLS long‑term projections likewise point to healthcare and services for the elderly as among the fastest growing detailed industries over the coming decade, suggesting the 2024–25 pattern has structural underpinnings [8] [6].
6. Competing perspectives and limits of the record
BLS payroll releases and BED data describe where jobs actually moved; independent analysts (Indeed, J.P. Morgan) add interpretive emphasis on concentration and near‑term momentum [1] [4] [5]. Visualizations and media trackers catalog widespread 2025 layoff announcements in some sectors, but the supplied Visual Capitalist piece and other private trackers report employer layoff tallies without a reconciled BLS net‑employment context [9]. Available sources do not mention a single, authoritative ranking of the largest industry job gains and losses specifically measured from 2024 to 2025; rather, the record shows sectoral concentration, strong healthcare gains, sizeable hospitality/government contributions, and very large gross flows of hires and separations across the economy [1] [4] [2].
7. Practical takeaway for readers and policymakers
Policymakers should watch concentration risk in 2025: if hiring narrows to a few sectors, overall labor‑market resilience weakens [4]. Employers and workers should heed the high turnover revealed by BLS BED flows; millions of separations and hires each quarter imply both opportunity and instability for workers changing industries [2] [3]. For a definitive, ranked accounting of exact industry gains and losses between calendar 2024 and 2025, available sources do not provide that single table — the BLS releases and analyst reports together give the clearest picture: health care led gains, leisure & hospitality and government made large contributions, and gross job churn remained very large [1] [4] [2].