The U.S. healthcare sector continued to add workers in November, with employment increasing by approximately 19,200 jobs.
According to the latest employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the biggest healthcare job gains were in hospitals, where 8,000 jobs were added in November.
Ambulatory care settings also added jobs in November, with a total increase of 7,400. That sector has shown employment gains for the past four months.
The dominant job growth area in ambulatory care was in home healthcare services, which added 4,100 jobs. Outpatient care centers added 700 jobs, while physician offices actually experienced a decrease of 500 jobs.
Nursing and residential care facilities enjoyed healthy job gains in November, as employment increased by 3,800 jobs.
Overall, total non-farm payroll employment increased by 39,000 in November, but the national unemployment rate also increased slightly to 9.8 percent. It had been 9.6 percent for the prior three months. The number of unemployed increased by 300,000 to 15.1 million.
Since December 2009, total payroll employment has increased by an average of 86,000 per month.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 or more weeks) increased by 107,000 to 6.3 million. The long-term unemployed currently make up about 41.9 percent of unemployed persons.