Healthcare Drives US Job Growth in May

Revised BLS figures show that healthcare created 21,900 jobs in April, 31,600 jobs in March, 38,200 jobs in February, and 33,800 jobs in January, continuing a strong trend that saw 296,900 new jobs in 2011. Healthcare accounted for more than 18% of the 1.6 million new jobs in the overall economy in 2011.

More than 14.3 million people worked in the healthcare sector in May, with more than 4.8 million of those jobs at hospitals and more than 6.3 million jobs in ambulatory services, which includes more than 2.4 million jobs in physicians' offices.

In the larger economy, BLS said 12.7 million people were unemployed in May, a slight increase from April. The number of long-term unemployed, defined as those who have been jobless for 27 weeks or longer, grew slightly to 5.4 million people in May, representing 42.8% of the unemployed.