Healthcare employment cooled off in July, adding 156K jobs

The healthcare industry added 126,000 jobs in July, a major dip compared with June as the industry continues to combat COVID-19, according to the latest federal jobs report.

The report released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is a major decline from the 358,000 jobs that the industry added in July.

But overall employment in healthcare continues to be down significantly in 2020 as the industry faces plummeting patient volumes due to the cancellation of elective surgeries and hesitancy to head to the hospital or doctor’s office.

Healthcare employment is down 797,000 since February, right before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March.

The report showed that dentist offices continued to have a robust recovery as offices start to open back up.

Dentist employment added 45,000 jobs in July, which is down compared to the 190,000 jobs it added in June. Physician office jobs also added 26,000 jobs, compared with 80,000 in June.

Home healthcare services had an increase of 16,000 jobs.

But hospitals continued a robust job recovery after the onset of the pandemic in March forced systems to furlough or lay off workers. Hospitals added 27,000 jobs in July, an increase from the 6,000 jobs that the sector added in June.

In May, hospital jobs declined by 26,000.

But things continued to get worse for the nursing home industry, which continued to shed jobs. Nursing home employment declined by 28,000. The sector lost more jobs in July compared with June, when nursing homes lost 20,000 jobs.

In May, the sector also lost 52,000 jobs.