The healthcare sector gained approximately 63,000 jobs in July, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s up from the average monthly gain of 51,000 seen in the prior 12 months.
Nursing and residential care facilities gained 12,000 workers in July, lagging behind ambulatory healthcare services and hospitals, which gained 35,000 and 16,000 jobs, respectively, in July.
In addition to healthcare, employment continued to trend upward in social assistance, financial activities and wholesale trade.
Overall, total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 187,000 in July, and the unemployment rate changed little, at 3.5%. The unemployment rate has ranged from 3.4% to 3.7% since March 2022, BLS noted.
Average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by $0.14, or 0.4%, to $33.74. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 4.4%, according to BLS.
Meanwhile, according to data released Friday in the Business Trends and Outlook Survey from the US Census Bureau, 34% of healthcare and social service providers surveyed said they anticipate continued staffing shortages throughout the remainder of the year, compared with 25.6% of the respondents that said that they don’t expect their businesses to have difficulties hiring paid employees over the next six months.
The survey measures business conditions on an ongoing basis.
Overall, 44.7% of healthcare and social service providers said that their businesses’ current performance is above average. Only 16.3% of the respondents rated their businesses’ performance as below average or poor.
