Employment in the U.S. healthcare sector increased by approximately 21,000 jobs in November, while the national unemployment rate dropped slightly to 10.0 percent, according to recent data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The biggest healthcare job gains were in ambulatory care, especially home healthcare services. Approximately 12,600 of the 21,000 new healthcare jobs were in the ambulatory care sector. Of these jobs, 7,300 were in home healthcare services, and 3,800 in physicians’ offices. Outpatient care centers actually lost 3,300 jobs in November.
Hospitals gained approximately 6,800 jobs in November, while overall employment in nursing and residential care facilities increased by approximately 1,600 jobs.
The BLS reports that the healthcare industry has added 613,000 jobs since the start of the recession.
Overall, non-farm payroll employment fell by 11,000 jobs in November and the number of unemployed persons fell by approximately 325,000 to 15.4 million.
At the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons was 7.5 million, and the jobless rate was 4.9 percent.