The U.S. healthcare sector continued its steady creation of new jobs, with employment increasing in February by approximately 34,300 positions.
Over the prior 12 months, the healthcare industry has added 260,000 jobs, or an average of 22,000 jobs per month.
According to the latest employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the biggest healthcare job gains were in ambulatory care settings and nursing and residential care facilities. Approximately 16,900 ambulatory care jobs were added in February, while nursing and residential care facilities saw gains of 15,300 jobs.
Hospitals also added jobs in February, although at a much lower rate, with a total increase of 2,100 positions.
[The healthcare industry began 2011 as it ended 2010 – hiring employees; medical innovation could be creating even more of those new jobs]
The dominant job growth area in ambulatory care was in home healthcare services, which added 7,500 jobs. Outpatient care centers added 2,600 jobs, while physician offices added 1,500 jobs.
Overall, total non-farm payroll employment increased by 192,000 in February, and the national unemployment rate held steady at 8.9 percent. The number of unemployed decreased by 200,000 to 13.7 million.
The labor force was relatively unchanged over the month, and the jobless rate was down by 0.9 percentage point since November 2010.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 or more weeks) fell slightly to 6 million. The long-term unemployed currently make up about 43.9 percent of unemployed persons.