Healthcare hiring continued to pick up last month, with organizations adding 34,000 jobs in December, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Friday as part of its monthly employment report.
Overall, the United States added 252,000 jobs in the month, while the unemployment rate fell to 5.6 percent.
"Employment growth in health care averaged 26,000 per month in 2014 and 17,000 per month in 2013," the department said in the report.
In healthcare, December's workforce was more than 14.9 million compared to 14.6 million recorded in December 2013.
Ambulatory care posted the largest gains, with more than 16,000 jobs added in the past month. Year over year, ambulatory care employment has climbed from nearly 6.6 million in December 2013 to nearly 6.9 million this past December, a trend that comes as new initiatives to reduce hospital stays has shifted care towards outpatient services.
Nursing was also a major job driver, adding nearly 11,000 jobs in December compared to the prior month. Hospitals added 7,000 jobs month over month.
Office physicians added the fewest jobs in December with 800 positions created compared to the prior month. In December, the office physician workforce topped 2.52 million, compared to 2.47 million in the prior year.
The treemap below shows the makeup of the total healthcare job market, broken down by industry.