Although general unemployment continues at 9 percent across industries, hospital employment was up 3,300 in October from the previous month, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released Friday. Hospital employment slowly climbed to 4,778,100, up from 4,774,800 (seasonally adjusted). Hospital employment continues to grow, compared to last year's numbers at 4,694,100 hospital jobs in October 2010.
Total unemployment for the country hasn't changed much since April, with 13.9 million out of work. However, healthcare employment shows signs of modest job growth. Over the past 12 months, overall healthcare sectors added 313,000 jobs, with 11,600 in the month of October.
Physician offices added 8,200 jobs in October, and ambulatory health settings added 4,800.
The data support an earlier report this month from the Bipartisan Policy Center Health Professional Workforce Initiative with The Deloitte Workforce Initiative, indicating that healthcare employment is set to explode. From 2008 to 2018, healthcare employment will grow by 23 percent, compared to only 9 percent in all other employment sectors, according to the report, with the biggest gains in home health aides increasing by 50 percent and personal and home care aides by 46 percent.
For more information:
- read the BLS news release
- check out the BLS data