Hospital employment in Northeast PA falls 10 percent

Area hospitals shed 2,500 jobs in the last five years because of hospital closings, consolidations and industrywide changes in care. For the first time in at least 23 years, the number of hospital jobs in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metro area sank below 9,000. Between just November 2012 and November 2013 employment at general and surgical hospitals dropped from 9,500 to 8,500, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry estimated. The 10.5 percent decline—the largest year-over-year drop since 1990—marks the sixth straight November in which area hospital jobs decreased or remained flat compared to the previous year.