The healthcare industry continues to drive job growth in the United States, contributing 39,000 of the 287,000 total jobs employers added to the economy in June, the Department of Labor announced Friday.
The June numbers are the latest in what's been consistent growth for the sector for several months. In May, healthcare businesses added 46,000 jobs to the economy, and in April the industry contributed 44,000 jobs.
Health care employment increased by 39,000 over the month, with gains in ambulatory health care services of 19,000 and hospitals adding 15,000 jobs. This growth falls in line with average monthly gains over the last year in each industry, according to data from the Department of Labor.
The unemployment rate increased slightly to 4.9 percent in June from 4.7 percent in May, and the number of unemployed persons increased by 347,000 to 7.8 million, the DOL said.
The Bureau also adjusted job numbers for the months of April and May. The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for April was revised from 123,000 to 144,000, and the numbers for May were revised from 38,000 to 11,000. With these changes, the economy netted 6,000 fewer jobs in April and May than previously reported.
With the addition of 39,000 new jobs in June, the healthcare sector added 234,600 jobs during the first half of this year -- representing nearly one in four jobs created so far in 2016, according to tallies from the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.
So far, that growth is set to eclipse the gains seen in healthcare during the first half of 2015, which saw 225,300 jobs added to the sector.
Ambulatory services led the charge, with about 127,000 new jobs this year. That's a slight downtick from the nearly 138,000 jobs created during the same period last year, but hospitals have made up that difference with 90,000 jobs created through June, compared to just over 74,000 in 2015.
Nursing and residential care facilities experienced slight gains over last year, adding a thousand more jobs -- 18,200 so far this year, as compared to 17,200 by the same point in 2015.
The jobs created so far in 2016 in healthcare make up roughly 23 percent of the 1 million non-farm jobs created in the overall economy. Overall, there were 15.5 million healthcare jobs in June -- 7.1 in ambulatory care, 5.1 million in hospitals and 3.3 million in residential and nursing homes.
June and May job numbers are considered preliminary and subject to revision.
HFN's Jeff Lagasse contributed to this report.
Twitter: @BethJSanborn
Twitter: @JELagasse