The U.S. healthcare sector continued to expand in December, with employment increasing by approximately 35,700 jobs.
According to the latest employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the biggest healthcare job gains were in ambulatory care settings, where 20,600 jobs were added in December.
Hospitals also added jobs in December, with a total increase of 8,000.
[Compare the BLS December jobs report with last month’s employment data; or see another perspective on healthcare job growth in late 2010]
The dominant job growth area in ambulatory care was in outpatient care centers, which added 6,500 jobs. Home healthcare services added 4,300 jobs, while physician offices added 3,300 jobs.
Nursing and residential care facilities continued a healthy hiring pace in December, as employment increased by 7,000 jobs.
Overall, total non-farm payroll employment increased by 103,000 in December, and the national unemployment rate fell from 9.8 percent to 9.4 percent. The number of unemployed decreased by 556,000 to 14.5 million.
Over 2010, these measures were down from 9.9 percent and 15.2 million, respectively.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 or more weeks) increased slightly to 6.4 million. The long-term unemployed currently make up about 44.3 percent of unemployed persons.