The U.S. healthcare sector was among the leaders in new job creation nationwide in March, with employment increasing by approximately 36,600 positions.
Over the prior 12 months, the healthcare industry has added 283,000 jobs, or an average of 24,000 jobs per month.
According to the latest employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the biggest healthcare job gains were in ambulatory care settings and at hospitals. Approximately 17,600 ambulatory care jobs were added in March, while nursing and hospitals saw gains of 10,200 jobs.
Nursing and residential care facilities also added jobs at a healthy clip in March, with a total increase of 8,800 positions.
[See also: The healthcare industry hired at a steady pace in February.]
The dominant job growth area in ambulatory care was in physician offices, which added 7,600 jobs. Outpatient care centers added 700 jobs, while home healthcare services created approximately 2,000 jobs.
Overall, total non-farm payroll employment increased by 216,000 in March, and the national unemployment rate held steady at 8.8 percent. The number of unemployed decreased by 200,000 to 13.5 million.
The labor force was relatively unchanged over the month, and the jobless rate was down by 1 percentage point since November 2010.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 or more weeks) increased slightly to 6.1 million. The long-term unemployed currently make up about 45.5 percent of unemployed persons.