Healthcare adds 37,000 jobs in January, laboratory workforce shrinks, feds say
Healthcare businesses added more than 37,000 jobs in January, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Friday, as the first month of 2016 seemed to extend the sector’s job-creating trend over the past year.
Overall, the U.S. economy added 151,000 jobs in the month and the unemployment rate fell slightly to 4.9 percent.
[Also: The 29 best jobs in healthcare]
The highest job gains in January came from hospitals, which added 23,700 jobs in the month, followed by ambulatory centers, which added 10,700 jobs.
According to the labor department, healthcare has added 470,000 jobs in the past 12 months, with 40 percent of those jobs being created by hospitals.
On the other hand, a few sub-sectors of healthcare actually lost jobs in January, the labor department said. Dentist offices shed 1,500 jobs in the month, data show, while medical and diagnostic laboratories lost more than 3,700 positions.
Here's the seasonally adjusted breakdown for the healthcare sector. All numbers are in thousands:
| Industry | Jan. 2015 | Nov. 2015 | Dec. 2015 | Jan. 2016 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Industry | Jan. 2015 | Nov. 2015 | Dec. 2015 | Jan. 2016 | Change |
| Healthcare | 14,869.40 | 15,267.00 | 15,302.30 | 15,339.10 | 36.8 |
| Ambulatory healthcare | 6,752.20 | 6,967.50 | 6,989.20 | 6,999.90 | 10.7 |
| Physicians offices | 2,497.00 | 2,564.20 | 2,568.00 | 2,574.00 | 6 |
| Dentists offices | 898.6 | 917.3 | 925.9 | 924.4 | -1.5 |
| Other healthcare offices | 798.3 | 823.7 | 827 | 831.1 | 4.1 |
| Outpatient care centers | 730.6 | 757.4 | 760.9 | 760.5 | -0.4 |
| Medical and diagnostic laboratories | 254.3 | 261.1 | 259.7 | 256 | -3.7 |
| Home health care services | 1,291.50 | 1,349.60 | 1,354.10 | 1,360.40 | 6.3 |
| Other ambulatory healthcare | 282 | 294.2 | 293.7 | 293.5 | -0.2 |
| Hospitals | 4,834.90 | 4,987.60 | 5,000.00 | 5,023.70 | 23.7 |
| Nursing and residential care facilities | 3,282.30 | 3,311.90 | 3,313.10 | 3,315.50 | 2.4 |
| Nursing care facilities | 1,652.80 | 1,659.20 | 1,660.10 | 1,659.20 | -0.9 |
| Residential mental health facilities | 605.9 | 609.3 | 608.7 | 610.6 | 1.9 |
| Community care facilities for the elderly | 862 | 882 | 881.7 | 883.3 | 1.6 |
| Other residential care facilities | 161.7 | 161.4 | 162.6 | 162.4 | -0.2 |
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