The healthcare sector has lost 503,000 jobs since the start of the pandemic in February 2020.
Hospitals gained 18,000 jobs in July, reversing a three-month trend of job losses, preliminary federal data released Friday show.
Overall, the healthcare sector created 37,000 new jobs in July, with the gains by hospitals and 32,000 new jobs in ambulatory services offsetting the loss of 13,000 jobs in nursing and residential homes, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.
The BLS report accounts for employment in mid-July and can be subject to considerable revision.
The healthcare sector has shed 502,000 jobs since the start of the pandemic in February 2020, with hospitals accounting for 86,000 job losses, and nursing homes accounting for 378,000 job losses. Ambulatory services sector lost 37,000 jobs in that span.
There were 15.9 million people attached to the healthcare sector workforce in July, BLS said.
For the second straight month, the larger economy saw solid job growth in July, with 943,000 new jobs created, as the unemployment rate ticked down to 5.4% from 5.9% in June, and the number of unemployed people fell by 782,000 to 8.7 million.
Nonfarm payroll employment is up by 16.7 million since April 2020 but down by 5.7 million, or 2.7%, from its pre-pandemic level in February 2020.
John Commins is a content specialist and online news editor for HealthLeaders, a Simplify Compliance brand.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Hospitals gained 18,000 jobs, reversing a three-month trend of job losses.
Ambulatory services gained 32,000 jobs, while nursing and residential homes shed 13,000 jobs.
Since February 2020, hospitals, ambulatory services, and nursing homes have lost 86,000 jobs, 37,000 jobs, and 378,000 job, respectively.
There were 15.9 million people attached to the healthcare sector workforce in July.