Healthcare Job Growth Up in November

Healthcare created 17,200 jobs in November—a healthy increase from the 11,600 jobs created by the sector in October.

Healthcare remains a leading source of job creation in the overall economy, and was responsible for 14.3% of the 120,000 new jobs across all sectors in November, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows.

Through the first 11 months of 2011, healthcare created 295,100 jobs—more than the 263,400 healthcare jobs created in all of 2010. Healthcare is on a pace to create 321,000 new jobs by year's end. So far this year, the 295,100 new healthcare jobs represent more than 24% of the more than 1.2 million non-farm jobs created in 2011.

Hospitals created 8,700 new jobs in November. The 83,200 new hospital jobs so far in 2011 are more than double the 37,300 new hospital jobs reported in all of of 2010, BLS data show.

Ambulatory services, which includes physicians' offices, created only 4,700 new jobs in November, after reporting 17,000 new jobs in October, 23,400 new jobs in September, and 20,200 new jobs in August. Ambulatory services have been responsible for 58% (171,800) of new jobs in healthcare so far in 2011, and created 166,100 new jobs in 2010.

Physicians' offices created 63,700 new jobs in the first 11 months of 2011, compared with 25,300 jobs created in that subsector for all of 2010. Physicians' offices created 2,700 jobs in November and 8,000 jobs in October after posting 9,700 new jobs in September.

BLS data from October and November are preliminary and may be revised considerably in the coming months.

More than 14.1 million people worked in the healthcare sector in October, with more than 4.7 million of those jobs at hospitals, and more than 6.2 million jobs in ambulatory services, which includes more than 2.3 million jobs in physicians' offices.

In the larger economy, the nation's unemployment rate dropped from 9% to 8.6%—its lowest level since March 2009—fueled by 120,000 nonfarm payroll additions. Nonetheless, 14 million people were unemployed. The number of long-term unemployed, defined as people jobless for 27 weeks or longer, was 5.7 million in November, essentially unchanged from October, and represented 43% of the unemployed.