Hospitals continue to add new jobs in large numbers

The hospital job generator keeps on humming along.

Hospitals employed a seasonally adjusted total of 5.03 million people during the month of February, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's 10,600 more jobs than January of this year, and 181,200 more jobs compared to February 2015.

The hospital sector is continuing its dramatic about-face from little more than two years ago, when it produced no new jobs at all and was fortunate to have a month that generated some 900 new positions. The overall decline toward the end of 2013 represented the first time the number of jobs in the healthcare sector had fallen since the middle of 2003.

However, hospitals were not the only part of the healthcare sector piling on the jobs. Ambulatory care centers added a seasonally adjusted 23,600 jobs in February compared to January, the biggest category job growth in the entire sector. Since February 2015, ambulatory care has added 60,500 jobs. Physician offices added 7,500 jobs this February and a total of 78,500 jobs over the past year.

The only areas of healthcare that saw a decline were medical and diagnostic laboratories, which experienced a drop of 300 jobs between January and February, and nursing care facilities, which had a drop of 200 jobs during the same time period. Over the past year, labs added 1,700 jobs to its payrolls, while nursing care facilities added a total of 6,800 jobs.

Altogether, the healthcare sector created 38,100 jobs during the month of February, and a seasonally adjusted total of 480,900 jobs since February 2015.

To learn more:
- read the BLS report