Health care added 19,000 jobs in April, an increase of 0.1 percent, to bring total employment for the sector to 14.3 million, newly released employment figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show. The preliminary figures show that hiring last month across health care, including hospitals and physician offices, trailed the average of 26,400 hires per month over the previous year. Health care's hiring during that 12-month window totaled 316,300, or growth of 2.3 percent.
U.S. unemployment held steady last month at 8.1 percent as the overall economy added 115,000 jobs.
Hospitals added 4,100 jobs in April for growth of 0.1 percent to bring total hospital employment to 4.8 million. For the year that ended in April, hospital employment grew by 95,100 jobs, or 2 percent.
Physician office employment increased by 5,500 workers, or 0.2 percent, in April to 2.4 million. The year that ended last month saw physician offices add 72,600 jobs, also a 0.2 percent change.
Melanie Evans writes for Modern Healthcare, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.
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