Hospitals created 27,000 new jobs, about four times as many as were created in June.
Healthcare jobs continued their steady rebound in July as the nation contends with the coronavirus pandemic, but the pace of that job growth is slowing, new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show.
Healthcare reported 126,000 "payroll additions" in July, less than half the 318,000 new jobs seen in June. However, hospitals created 27,000 new jobs, about four times as many as were created in June (6,700), BLS data show.
Most of the July's healthcare job growth came in the ambulatory sector, which had mostly shuttered this spring because of the pandemic, including dentist offices (45,000), physician offices (26,000), and home health services (16,000), BLS said.
Those gains were offset by 28,000 job losses in nursing and residential care facilities. Since February, employment in healthcare is down by 797,000 jobs, BLS said.
July marks the third consecutive month of job growth for the healthcare sector, which suffered epic job losses in April owing to the coronavirus pandemic. In May, the sector saw 312,000 payroll additions, mostly in outpatient care venues.
The July job report largely reflects the state of the economy in mid-month and are considered preliminary and subject to considerable revision.
In the overall economy, BLS reported that payroll employment grew by 1.8 million in July, and the unemployment rate fell to 10.2%.
John Commins is the news editor for HealthLeaders.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Healthcare reported 126,000 "payroll additions" in July, less than half the 318,000 new jobs seen in June.
Most of the jobs came in the ambulatory sector, which had mostly shuttered this spring because of the pandemic.
Gains were offset by 28,000 job losses in nursing and residential care facilities.
Since February, employment in healthcare is down by 797,000 jobs.