WASHINGTON – Employment in the U.S. healthcare sector continued its rise in August, increasing by approximately 28,200 jobs. The healthcare industry has added an average of 20,000 jobs per month this year, about in line with the average monthly job growth in 2009.
According to the latest employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the biggest healthcare job gains continued to be in ambulatory care services, where 16,900 jobs were added in August.
Hospitals also gained jobs, adding 8,600 in August. These numbers are a welcome turnaround after three straight months of job losses in that sector.
The dominant job growth area in ambulatory care is in physician offices, which added 5,300 jobs. Home healthcare services added 2,800 jobs, while outpatient care centers saw an increase of 2,700 jobs.
Nursing and residential care facilities also continued to add jobs, as employment increased by 2,700 jobs in August.
Overall, total non-farm payroll employment declined by 54,000 in August, and the national unemployment rate increased slightly to 9.6 percent. The number of unemployed increased by 300,000 to 14.9 million.
The BLS said the decline in payroll employment reflected a 114,000-job decrease in government employment, although private-sector payroll employment rose by 67,000.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 or more weeks) fell by 323,000 to 6.2 million. The long-term unemployed currently make up about 42.0 percent of unemployed persons.
