The healthcare sector continues to be one of the strongest job generators in the American economy, according to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Altogether, the U.S. healthcare sector generated a seasonally adjusted 44,200 jobs last month compared to March of 2016. Compared to a year ago, healthcare has created 482,000 jobs in total, or about 18 percent of the 2.7 million non-farm jobs added in the U.S. between April 2015 and April of 2016.
Hospitals also have added a significant number of new positions. Organizations created 22,900 new jobs in the month of April--more than half of those created within the healthcare sector--and a seasonally adjusted 94,400 jobs since April 2015.
Although the job market within hospitals has slowed in recent months, it still remains far stronger than it did in 2013, when it created no new jobs at all.
That stagnation in hospital job creation three years led in part to the first sector-wide reduction in jobs in a decade. But the recovery from the Great Recession and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act has given healthcare a significant economic boost.
Ambulatory healthcare services created the bulk of the remaining new jobs in the healthcare sector last month--19,300 in total. That component of the healthcare sector added a seasonally adjusted 270,800 jobs since April of last year, making it by far the most robust for job growth over the past year.
Every provider classification within the healthcare sector added jobs last month, except for residential mental health facilities, which lost 1,600 jobs and other residential care facilities, which lost 100 jobs.
To learn more:
- read the BLS data