Healthcare Job Postings Stall in February

Online job ads for healthcare practitioners, technical workers, and support staff tapered in February, undercutting some of the surging job demand gains for the healthcare sector in January, according to the new The Conference Board Help Wanted Online report.

Labor demand for healthcare practitioners and technicaloccupations dropped 4,300 in February to 600,100 owing largely to decreases in advertised vacancies for registered nurses and occupational and physical therapists. Healthcare support positions posted a similar decrease of 4,200 to 139,000 in February, The Conference Board reports.

The board's Help Wanted Online Data Series tracks more than 1,000 online job boards across the United States.

In January, The Conference Board reported 78,500 new listings for practitioners and technicians, and 16,600 new ads for healthcare support jobs also grew by 16,600 listings, as healthcare jobs led a strong first month of 2011.

Even with February’s slight drop, there were still more than three job listings for every healthcare technician and practitioner job seeker, with the average salary of $33.51 an hour. There were two healthcare support workers for every online job listing, with pay averaging $12.84 an hour, The Conference Board reports.

Hospitals created 50,100 jobs in 2010, nearly double the rate of job creation from 2009, and the entire healthcare sector - everything from allergists to X-ray technicians -- created 265,800 jobs for the year, Bureau of Labor Statistics preliminary data shows.

Overall, the healthcare sector employed 13.9 million people at the end of 2010, including 4.7 million jobs at hospitals, 6 million jobs in outpatient ambulatory services, and 2.3 million jobs in physicians' offices, BLS data show.

The tapering off of February on-line job listings in healthcare mirrored a slight drop in job listings in the overall economy, which saw online advertised vacancies dipped by 27,400 in February to 4,245,600, The Conference Board reports.

“Total labor demand (new ads and ads that are reposted from the previous month) paused in February, but the number of new, first-time advertised vacancies continued to rise and is an indication that employers are continuing to look for workers,” said June Shelp, vice president at The Conference Board. “Nationally, new ads were up 86,100 in February, and that is a positive sign in contrast to the last few years when advertised vacancies either dropped or remained unchanged from January to February.”

Nationally, there were 9.6 million more unemployed workers than advertised vacancies in January -- the latest month for which unemployment data are available.

Labor demand in the overall economy has added 1.41 million online postings since the series’ low point in April, 2009. This increase offsets approximately 80% of the 1.76 million drop in ad volume during the two-year downturn period from April 2007 through April 2009.