How many people work in healthcare ( healthcare providers and support
staff) in the USA ?

Hi danielaqh:

In questions such as yours, I find that it is best to go right to the
appropriate department of the Federal Government for statistics.

In this case, you want the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor
Statistics, which can be found at:

U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics
URL: http://www.bls.gov/

Their Current Employment Statistics (CES) page has a wealth of links:

Current Employment Statistics (CES)
URL: http://www.bls.gov/ces/home.htm#tables

The specific document you want is:

ESTABLISHMENT DATA, EMPLOYMENT, NOT SEASONALLY ADJUSTED    
URL: ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/suppl/empsit.ceseeb12.txt

If you scroll about 4/5 fifths the way down the page (look for 621,2,3
in the first column of numbers), you'll find the total Health Care
statistics. From this you can see that the projected figures for all
helth care workers in Feb. 2005 is 12,162,200. These figures are
further broken down by segments of health care (621=Ambulatory health
care services, 622=Hospitals, 623=Nursing and residential care
facilities, etc.) if you want to refine your criteria.

Search Strategy (on Google):
* site:.gov workforce statistics

I hope this helps!

websearcher