If you’ve been reading nothing but layoff news and feeling like the job market is completely dead, I’ve got something different for you today.

Bloomberg reported that healthcare and hospitality have added a combined 690,000 jobs so far in 2025. That’s not a typo. Six hundred and ninety thousand new jobs. In one year. In just two industries.

While tech companies are laying off thousands and making headlines, hospitals and hotels are hiring like crazy. And nobody’s talking about it because good news doesn’t get clicks.

Where the jobs are: Nurses. Home health aides. Medical technicians. Hotel staff. Restaurant workers. Food service. Social workers. Care economy jobs are booming.

Here’s the thing that really gets me. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report says care economy jobs – nursing, social work, personal care aides – are expected to grow significantly through 2030. These are jobs that can’t be automated. You can’t have an AI hold grandma’s hand or help someone recover from surgery.

My sister’s a nurse. She’s been getting recruiters in her inbox every single day for months. Sign-on bonuses. Flexible schedules. Student loan repayment assistance. Hospitals are throwing money at anyone with a nursing degree because they’re that desperate.

And it’s not just fancy hospitals in big cities. Robert Half research shows healthcare jobs are booming everywhere – urgent care clinics, telehealth companies, senior care facilities, home health services. The demand is everywhere because people are everywhere and they need care.

My take: We spent decades telling kids to go into tech and finance. Maybe we should’ve been pushing healthcare and skilled trades. Those jobs aren’t going anywhere.

Hospitality is similar. Hotels can’t find enough workers. Restaurants are raising wages to attract staff. The leisure and hospitality sector added 330,000 jobs just in the first half of 2025. People want to travel again. They want to eat out. And someone has to staff all those places.

Now look, I’m not gonna pretend these are all dream jobs. Healthcare work is exhausting. Hospitality can be brutal. The pay in some of these positions still isn’t what it should be. But the jobs exist. They’re available. And for anyone who’s been told “nobody’s hiring,” that’s not true – you might just be looking in the wrong places.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists the fastest-growing occupations and it’s dominated by healthcare roles. Nurse practitioners. Home health aides. Medical assistants. Physical therapy assistants. These careers have job security that tech workers can only dream about right now.

The silver lining: If you’re willing to retrain, there are industries desperate for workers. Healthcare and hospitality aren’t going away. People will always need care. People will always want to travel and eat out.

My buddy’s kid was studying computer science, saw all the tech layoffs, and switched to nursing. Smart move. He’ll graduate with multiple job offers and actual job security instead of wondering if AI is gonna replace him in five years.

The job market isn’t dead. It’s just different than what we were told it would be. The industries that need humans – real, present, caring humans – are hiring. The industries that thought they could automate everything are cutting.

690,000 jobs. Healthcare and hospitality. The help wanted signs are up if you know where to look.