The ambulatory services and hospital sectors saw an increase in jobs during the month.
The healthcare sector started the year off with a slight increase in job numbers.
According to the newest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) employment report issued Friday morning, the healthcare sector gained 18,000 jobs in January 2022.
Within the healthcare sector, the ambulatory services sector saw an increase of 14,700 jobs and the hospital sector saw an additional 3,400 jobs in January. Nursing and residential care facilities saw a decrease of 100 jobs for the month, according to the BLS data.
While employment is trending up, the healthcare sector is still down 378,000 jobs (2.3%) since pre-pandemic levels in February 2020.
The overall U.S. labor market also saw a slight increase in job numbers for the month, and gained 467,000 nonfarm jobs. This leaves the unemployment rate little changed at 4%.
While the economy gained nonfarm jobs during the month, job levels remain 2.9 million (1.9%) lower than pre-pandemic levels in February 2020.
Melanie Blackman is a contributing editor for strategy, marketing, and human resources at HealthLeaders, an HCPro brand.