Employment in the U.S. healthcare sector jumped again in July, increasing by approximately 26,600 jobs. The industry has gained 231,000 jobs over the past year, although hospitals lost jobs for the third straight month.
According to the latest employment report from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, the biggest healthcare job gains continued to be in ambulatory care services, where 23,100 jobs were added in July.
Hospitals lost 2,300 jobs in July, however – the third straight month of job losses in that sector.
The dominant job growth area in ambulatory care was in home healthcare services, which added 9,200 jobs. Home health has seen solid, though unspectacular, employment growth over the past year, adding 47,100 jobs since July 2009.
Nursing and residential care facilities also continued to add jobs, as employment increased by 5,800 jobs in July.
Overall, total non-farm payroll employment declined by 131,000 in July, although the national unemployment rate remained steady at 9.5 percent. The number of unemployed also remained the same, at 14.6 million.
The BLS said the decline in payroll employment reflected a 143,000 decrease in the number of temporary employees working on Census 2010. Private-sector payroll employment edged up by 71,000.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 or more weeks) fell by 200,000 to 6.6 million. The long-term unemployed currently make up about 44.9 percent of unemployed persons.