Employment in the U.S. healthcare sector increased by 28,000 jobs in August, while the national unemployment rate grew to 9.7 percent, according to recent data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The biggest healthcare job gains were in ambulatory care and in nursing and residential care. Approximately 18,300 of the 28,000 new healthcare jobs were in the ambulatory care sector and 10,300 in nursing and residential care facilities.
Overall employment in hospitals actually declined by 700 jobs in August.
The BLS reports that job growth in the healthcare industry slowed in early 2009 and employment has been flat since May. Healthcare has added 544,000 jobs since the start of the recession.
Overall, nonfarm payroll employment fell by 216,000 jobs in August and the number of unemployed persons increased by 466,000 to 14.9 million.
Since the recession began in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has risen by 7.4 million and the unemployment rate has grown by 4.8 percent points.