The growth of jobs in the U.S. health care industry is the linchpin to a strong U.S. labor market in 2025 and beyond. Health care is one of only a handful of sectors to register sustained month-on-month growth in August, the most recent month for which complete data are available, and accounts for about one-third of all employment growth over the past year. But how health care workers are faring in terms of wage gains and job quality is another story, underscoring the importance of reviving America's labor movement.

Not too long ago, amid the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, nurses and other health care workers enjoyed a surge in social standing and pay. They were declared essential workers and national heroes. And their economic standing improved as the pandemic labor shortage and their desperately needed skills drove up their wages across the country.

What did not happen, however, was an increase in health care workers joining unions, which could have translated these positive developments into lasting economic gains. When the pandemic began to abate with the rise in COVID-19 immunization rates, so too did the labor shortages and the public appreciation that had driven up health care workers’ economic and social standing. Hospitals and nursing homes quickly reduced wages and benefits—and nonunionized workers were helpless to stop them.

This is a feature, of course, not a bug, of the U.S. labor market overall. Poor job quality—where workers earn low wages, work unstable hours, and receive declining benefits—means that in addition to reduced earnings, workers also derive less social standing from their jobs. And without the clout of being a member of a labor union, they cannot negotiate real wage gains as inflation once again picks up steam.

But job quality does not have to continue its decline in the United States. The decline of union power in our nation can be reversed—and health care workers can lead the way.

Read the full article about reviving America's labor movement by Adam Dean and Jamie McCallum at Equitable Growth.