The most job growth occurred in home healthcare services and hospitals.
While the healthcare sector was among the sectors to trend up in job growth in March, job gains were lower than the average monthly gain experienced over the past six months, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) employment situation summary released on April 7.
The healthcare sector added 34,000 jobs in March, with the biggest job growth experienced in home healthcare services (+15,000). Hospitals added 11,000 jobs, the ambulatory sector added 15,000 jobs, and nursing and residential care facilities added 8,000 jobs.
Over the past six months, the healthcare sector had an average monthly gain of 54,000 jobs, with March bringing that average down.
So far this year, the healthcare sector added 58,000 jobs in January and 44,000 jobs in February.
Healthcare joined the leisure and hospitality, government, and professional and business services sectors in a continued trend up in job gains.
During the month of March, total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 236,000, according to the BLS, which was also lower than the average monthly gain of 334,000 jobs over the past 6 months.
The number of unemployed people (5.8 million) and the unemployment rate (3.5%) changed little in March.
Melanie Blackman is a contributing editor for strategy, marketing, and human resources at HealthLeaders, an HCPro brand.