Jobs report shows healthcare hiring increasing

The healthcare industry gained 37,000 jobs in the month of July but still remains down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The latest employment summary from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that the addition of 32,000 jobs in ambulatory care services and 18,000 in hospitals was enough to offset the loss of 13,000 nursing and residential care facility jobs in July. The industry has not recovered fully though, as healthcare employment is still down by 502,000 jobs since February 2020.

Overall, the employment situation in the U.S. continues to improve. The total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 943,000 jobs in July, a slight increase from June’s numbers. Nonfarm employment payroll in July was up 16.7 million from April 2020, but is still down3.7 percent, or 5.7 million, according to the report.

The largest increases in July were seen in leisure and hospitality (380,000), local government education and private education (261,000), and professional and business services (60,000), the report says.

Meanwhile unemployment fell by 782,000 to 8.7 million; a modest 0.5 percent slip to 5.4 percent. While this is an improvement from the depths of the pandemic, the numbers are still well above pre-pandemic levels of 3.5 percent and 5.7 million in February 2020, according to the report.

Last month, 5.2 million people responded that they were unable to work because their employer had closed or lost business because of the pandemic. This measure was down from 6.2 million the month prior, the report says.

Workers also continue their return to the office as only 13.2 percent of employed persons report working remotely, a 1.2 percent dip from the month before.