Healthcare added 34,000 workers last month to bring total healthcare employment to 14.78 million workers, a preliminary look at August employment shows.
The sector's hiring added to the U.S. employment gains of 142,000, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its monthly update on the U.S. workforce.
The 0.2% increase in healthcare employment last month was similar to the 0.3% job growth for the same month a year ago. For the year that ended in August, healthcare hiring increased 1.6% compared with 1.8% the prior year.
Hiring in ambulatory care, which includes physician offices, increased by 22,800 workers, or 0.3% in August.
Ambulatory care added 194,700 jobs during the 12 months that ended last month, or an increase of 3%, to bring total employment to 6.7 million workers. The prior year ambulatory-care employment increased 3.2%.
Physician offices added 7,800 workers in August, for growth of 0.3%, and 62,800 jobs during the 12 months that ended last month, or an increase of 2.6%. Physician office employment totaled 2.5 million workers last month.
Hospital employment rebounded from a 0.1% decline in July to add 7,100 jobs in August, for growth of 0.1%.
