TAMPA, FL—The healthcare industry helped sustain the Tampa Bay area through the Great Recession. Now, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, could continue to push that trend forward.

A special healthcare report from Jones Lang LaSalle predicts the healthcare sector to continue leading the Tampa MSA’s labor market growth. The JLL forecast suggests that the sector’s employment growth could average 4%, while the metro’s total payrolls will see averages of growth, but at slower rates of 1.4%.

“Over the past six quarters, the back-office operations that support the nation’s largest insurers, like Humana and WellCare, as well as third-party companies, have seen employment gains and are absorbing more office space,” Stephen Siena, a research analyst at JLL. “It seems reasonable that Obamacare will increase the number of people with health insurance by about 20% in Florida and that should have a huge impact on insurer’s business models.”