Healthcare industry notches major June job gains Leave a comment
Dive Brief:
- The healthcare industry added about 57,00 jobs in June, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest jobs report out Friday. In May the industry added about 15,000 jobs.
- Ambulatory services saw the largest job gains, followed by hospitals, nursing and residential care facilities.
- Healthcare employment remains down 1.1%, or 176,000 jobs, from February 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic was just beginning in the U.S.
Dive Insight:
The healthcare industry suffered major job losses early in the pandemic as stay-at-home orders and restrictions on elective care forced some providers to temporarily shutter and furlough or lay off staff.
In April 2020, 1.5 million healthcare workers lost their jobs, according to BLS data.
The industry has slowly recouped many of those positions, with gains and losses fluctuating for different healthcare occupations and employers. In June, every sector in the healthcare industry saw gains of varying sizes.
Hospitals added 21,000 jobs last month, up from 10,600 jobs in May. Since June 2021, hospitals have added 52,700 jobs.
Ambulatory services also saw big gains, adding 28,000 jobs compared to losing about 2,000 in May.
Nursing and residential care facilities that saw consistent losses at the start of the pandemic have also seen recent gains.
Those employers added 8,000 jobs in June, compared to about 7,000 jobs in May.
Others in the sector, like physician offices, dentist offices and outpatient care centers, also saw job gains.
The U.S. ultimately added 372,000 jobs across all industries in June and the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.6%, according to the BLS.
That’s in line with the average monthly gain of 383,000 jobs over the past few months, according to the agency.
