sql statement being outputed rather than executed!

I have a situation where by the following code is outputing the query rather than actually executing it.

Im noob to this so its probably something stupid..

<?PHP
      $display .= "<table>";
      $sql = "SELECT * FROM job_jobcategories";
      $sql_res = mysql_query($sql);

      while ($sql_array = mysql_fetch_array($sql_res)){
      $jobcat = $sql_array[jobcategory];
      $query = "SELECT jobcategory, COUNT(*) FROM job_post WHERE jobcategory = $jobcat";
     
      $display .= "
      <tr>
      <td>$jobcat</td>
      <td>($query)</td>
      </tr>
      ";
      }
 
      $display .= "</table>";

      echo $display;
      ?> 

PHP:

the line that is not working is the $query

the first part (not written by me) works ok.

I have attached a screenshot of what is output

 

how would i do that?

and thanks for the rediculously fast reply

 

so something like..

<?PHP
      $display .= "<table>";
      $sql = "SELECT * FROM job_jobcategories";
      $sql_res = mysql_query($sql);

      while ($sql_array = mysql_fetch_array($sql_res)){
      $jobcat = $sql_array[jobcategory];
      $query = "SELECT jobcategory, COUNT(*) FROM job_post WHERE jobcategory = $jobcat";
      $sql_query = mysql_query($query);
     
      $display .= "
      <tr>
      <td>$jobcat</td>
      <td>($sql_query)</td>
      </tr>
      ";
      }
 
      $display .= "</table>";

      echo $display;
      ?> 

PHP: