Health jobs defy recession, grow in December

While the U.S. economy lost 85,000 jobs in December, healthcare employment continued to buck the trend and rose by 22,000 jobs, with physician-office hiring and home health services leading the way, according to the monthly jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Hospital employment also rose month-to-month, and by 1.4 percent year-over-year from 2008 to 2009.

Since the start of the recession, healthcare has gained 631,000 jobs and, along with temporary help services, was the only sector to add jobs in last month, according to the report. 

While hospital numbers are not specifically called out for a large rise or fall, the seasonally-adjusted employment at hospitals shows 4,739,900 jobs for November 2009 and 4,741,300 jobs for December 2009. The yearly gain in jobs is marked at 39,600 for hospitals.

To learn more:
- check out the full BLS report 

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