The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that during a challenging stretch for the Canadian economy, the labour market has been relying on one industry for the bulk of its job creation: health care. The Globe's Matt Lundy writes that since the end of 2023, employment in health care and social assistance has risen by 6.4 per cent, or 150,000 positions, according to Statistics Canada. That is nearly double the expansion in all other industries, which have a net gain of roughly 86,000 positions combined over the same span. Tariffs imposed by the United States have walloped key export sectors in Canada and put a chill on hiring plans. Even before the trade war, job vacancies were vanishing as the Bank of Canada used higher interest rates to slow the economy and douse inflation. Immigration is down. In a choppy economic environment, health care is something of an outlier and less exposed to the ebbs and flows of the business cycle. And like other Western countries, Canada is getting older. "The entirety of job growth is happening in one sector. That's concerning," said RBC economist Carrie Freestone. Around 14 per cent of Canadian residents work in health care and social assistance, up from 8 per cent in the 1970s.