One Of The Fastest Growing Industries In America Is Barely Making A Profit

America is aging.

As a result, the country is seeing an explosion in jobs in involving caring for the elderly. The BLS now projects personal and home care aids will be the fastest-growing occupations in the next decade, climbing 49% through 2022.

At the same time, the retirement and assisted living industry is now the least-profitable industry in America, according to Sageworks.

Sageworks' analyst Libby Bierman told BI by phone that the industry has lots of overhead, though wages in the aforementioned positions are usually among the lowest in the country. Instead, she said, most of the spending goes to a never-ending series of facilities upgrades and expansions.

Here's the table showing the lowest-margin industries in America. Retirement and assisted living actually suffers from negative margins on average, the only industry to do so.

If you're interested, below are the most profitable industries. Bierman said the ones at the top generally enjoy low overhead - basically, anything you can run out of an office. It's not clear why religious corporations make the list, Bierman said. She suggested this was an anomaly.