Health Care Industry Continues to Add Jobs

The latest unemployment figures, which showed employment in June essentially stalled, have gotten people worried. The report showed the unemployment rate at 9.2%.

The number of people unemployed for the short-term

— less than five weeks —

increased by 412,000, while long-term unemployment

—27 weeks and more without a job—

remained unchanged.

However, there is one industry that has seen a continuous upward trend: health care. According to the jobs report, the health care industry added another 14,000 jobs in June. Over the prior 12 months, health care had added an average of 24,000 jobs per month.

Although jobs were added from February through April

— averaging 215,000 new jobs a month — employment numbers have been mostly flat for the last two months.

Government jobs continued to trend down but professional and technical services added jobs for the third month in a row.