January and February 2012 saw the largest ever two-month increase in health care jobs, with 49,000 new jobs created in February and 43,000 in January. The soaring job creation has brought the health sector share of total national employment to an all-time high of 10.8 percent.

These figures come from the March “Health Sector Economic Indicators” briefs released today by Altarum Institute’s Center for Sustainable Health Spending. The complete set of briefs—covering health care spending, utilization, prices and employment—can be viewed at www.altarum.org/healthindicators.

Altarum’s data also reveal that health spending growth continues a downward trend begun in February 2011, with just 3.4 percent growth in January 2012 compared to January 2011, hovering around the record full-year low of 3.8 percent in 2009. Health care inflation, hitting 2.0 percent in January, remains at the lowest level in 13 years.