ACA Appears to Be Limiting Job Opportunities Outside The Health Care Industry

A new Kaiser Family Foundation survey report finds four percent of employers have reduced the number of full-time employees they intend to hire because of the cost of the Affordable Care Act.  Although the Kaiser data is not broken down by industry, according to an August 2016 survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, almost 17 percent of service sector firms and 21 percent of manufacturers said they were reducing the number of workers in response to the ACA, while just 1 percent and 5 percent respectively were increasing job opportunities.  On the other hand, the latest BLS data show that since the end of 2010, the health care industry has added almost 1.7 million jobs and will likely become the nation's largest industry by 2019.  According to the Federal Reserve, 15 percent of service sector firms and 13 percent of manufacturers said they were increasing the number of part-time employees in response to the ACA, and 10 percent of service sector firms and 20 percent of manufacturers said they were reducing other benefits, including retirement, in response to the ACA.