Ambulatory-care hiring rises as hospital jobs decline

Strong ambulatory-care hiring offset job losses at hospitals and nursing homes last month, with overall healthcare employment adding a mere 7,000 new jobs, according to the latest round of federal employment data.

Ambulatory care added 21,300 jobs, growing 0.3%. The sector's employment gains were primarily among doctors' offices and home-care providers, which account for more than half of ambulatory care's 6.7 million jobs. Doctors' offices added 7,500 jobs, bringing total employment in that setting to 2.5 million. Home care added 5,200 jobs to its payrolls. As of last month, home-care providers employed 1.3 million.The figures are seasonally adjusted and preliminary for the past two months.

A decrease in employment at acute-care and post-acute-care facilities last month continued a streak of weak hiring, punctuated with intermittent declines. Combined, hospitals, nursing homes and residential care for the mentally ill and elderly account for 55% of all healthcare jobs.

Hospitals shed 7,100 jobs last month, the second month this year that hospital payrolls contracted, dipping 0.1% to 4.8 million. Last year, hiring was stagnant, and this year, hospitals have added an average of only 300 jobs a month.

Nursing homes shed 5,200 jobs last month, a decline of 0.4%. The sector has shed 200 jobs a month, on average, this year. That's less than last year's average monthly job loss of 1,000 jobs. Total nursing-home employment was 1.6 million last month. —Melanie Evans

Follow Melanie Evans on Twitter: @MHmevans