Healthcare added 2,000 jobs in November, but nursing and residential care facilities lost 11,000 jobs, according to a report released Friday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The report presents statistics from two monthly surveys.
“The broad healthcare sector is down by 450,000 since February 2020. Employment in nursing and residential care facilities account for nearly all the loss,” Beth Burnham Mace, chief economist at the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care,wrote in a Dec. 3 blog.
“Jobs have been on the decline in nursing care since 2011,” she added.
Mace noted that weekly claims for unemployment benefits fell last month below their pre-pandemic numbers for the first time since the recovery started. At the same time, however, businesses are struggling to recruit and retain staff.
It’s far too early to tell how the COVID-19 omicron variant might affect employment numbers moving forward, according to Mace.
