News: Healthcare job growth slows, but adds 31k jobs to U.S. economy
United States’ healthcare job growth slowed down by 50% this past August when compared with last year’s data, HealthLeaders recently reported.
The information comes as part of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) update to its monthly “Employment Situation Summary.” According to BLS, mass unemployment in August remains virtually the same as it was in July: “Both the unemployment rate, at 4.2 percent, and the number of unemployed people, at 7.1 million change[d] little in August.”
In August 2023, the U.S. economy saw the creation of 60,000 new jobs from healthcare workers (e.g., providers, nurses, emergency medical technicians). This year, however, that rate fell to 34,000. Nevertheless, as HealthLeaders observed, “[e]ven with the slowdown, healthcare accounted for more than one-in-five (22%) of the 142,000 jobs created in the U.S. economy in September.”
According to HealthLeaders, the new batch of 34,000 healthcare workers can be generally broken down into jobs occurring within the ambulatory care sector (24,000) and within hospitals (10,000).
Editor’s note: To read the HealthLeaders summary, click here. To read the BLS update, click here.