This page provides data on California health care employment by county and congressional district, including by sector and as a percentage of total employment, using estimates from IMPLAN input-output economic modeling software.

Approximately 2.65 million Californians were employed in a range of health care sectors including 594,000 in hospitals, 522,000 in physician offices, clinics, and other outpatient centers, 883,000 in home care and home health, 241,000 in nursing homes and community care facilities, and 415,000 in other health care sectors in 2023. In total, workers in the various health care sectors made up 14% of the approximately 19 million Californians who were employed in 2023.

The large share of California employment that is in health care is especially relevant at a time when major cuts to Medicaid are being considered in Congress, and approximately one out of every five dollars spent on health care is tied to Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program. Certain sectors disproportionately rely on Medi-Cal, such as nursing homes, (61% of residents with Medi-Cal as a payer) and safety net providers, including community clinics and county- and city-owned hospitals (Medi-Cal makes up 68% of net patient revenue in both settings).

This page focuses on the total number of health care workers in each county and congressional district, complementing a recent policy brief that included projected jobs lost due to possible Medi-Cal cuts across the same regions. According to the recent brief, if California loses between $10 billion and $20 billion due to federal Medi-Cal spending cuts, 72,000 to 145,000 out of approximately 2.65 million total health care jobs (3-5%) could be lost, in addition to jobs in other sectors.

Click on the title bars to expand each section to see interactive maps by county and congressional district. To zoom in, use the +/- buttons in the bottom left of the graphic.

To download a spreadsheet with all estimates for each geographic region, click “Get the data” below each map.

Methodological notes:

These maps use IMPLAN input-output economic modeling software. IMPLAN’s Employment data come from BLS Census of Employment and Wages (CEW) data, BEA Regional Economic Accounts (REA) data, and County Business Patterns (CBP) data. IMPLAN combines these data sources and develops estimates that account for non-disclosures, exclusions, and undercoverage in employment data.

The 2023 data in these maps includes salary or wage-earning employees, but not proprietors. 

The health care sectors shown in the map reflect groupings of IMPLAN sectors as follows:

• Physician offices, clinics, and other outpatient centers include IMPLAN sectors: offices of physicians and outpatient care centers.
• Hospitals include IMPLAN sectors: hospitals, employment and payroll of state govt, hospitals and health services, and employment and payroll of local govt, hospitals and health services. 
• Home care/ home health includes IMPLAN sectors: home health care services and individual and family services. 
• Nursing homes and community care facilities reflects one IMPLAN sector: nursing and community care facilities.
• “Other health care” includes IMPLAN sectors: offices of dentists, offices of other health practitioners, medical and diagnostic laboratories, other ambulatory health care services, and residential mental health, substance abuse, and other residential care facilities.