Hospitals Add 10K Jobs in April

For the second consecutive month, job growth in the healthcare sector showed impressive gains, Bureau of Labor Statistics preliminary data show.

Hospitals created 10,100 new jobs in April, after posting 10,200 new jobs in March. So far in 2011, hospitals have created 31,500 new jobs, compared with 8,900 new jobs in the first four months of 2010, BLS data and preliminary data show.

The healthcare sector – everything from hospitals to podiatrists' offices to kidney dialysis centers – created 37,290 new jobs in April, after posting 34,400 new jobs in March, and 112,100 new jobs in 2011. Healthcare created 80,500 new jobs in the first four months of 2010, BLS preliminary data and preliminary show.

Healthcare sector employment nudged over the 14 million jobs threshold in April, with more than 4.7 million jobs at hospitals, more than 6.1 million jobs in ambulatory services, and more than 2.3 million in physicians’ offices, BLS preliminary data show.

Ambulatory services accounted for more than half of the new jobs created in the healthcare sector in 2011, with 21,500 new jobs in April, and 59,800 new jobs in the last four months. Ambulatory services created more than 57,000 new jobs in the first four months of 2010, BLS data and preliminary data show.

Physicians' offices reported another strong month of job growth, with 6,600 new payroll additions reported in April, after posting 8,700 new jobs in March, and 31,500 new jobs in 2011. That compares with 8,900 new jobs in the first four months of 2010.

BLS data from March and April are preliminary and may be considerably revised in the coming months.

The healthcare sector continues to be one of the few areas of job growth in the sputtering economy. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, healthcare employment has grown by 931,000 jobs, while total nonfarm employment has fallen by about 7.2 million, BLS data show. 

The larger U.S. economy gained 244,000 jobs in April but the nation's jobless rate edged up to 9%, up from 8.8% in March, with 13.7 million people unemployed. The number of long-term unemployed -- people jobless for 27 weeks or longer – was 5.8 million in April, a decrease of 280,000 from March, and their ranks decreased from 43.9% to 43.4% of the unemployed, BLS preliminary data show.