Healthcare hiring steady amid U.S. employment recovery

Healthcare added 22,600 jobs last month as the nation's unemployment rate fell to a low not seen since the early months of the Great Recession.

Overall healthcare employment in September reached 14.8 million jobs, according to the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The figures are seasonally adjusted and preliminary for the past two months. The economy added 248,000 jobs last month and unemployment rate dipped to 5.9%, the first time the rate has fallen below 6% since August 2008. The unemployment rate hovered at 5% as the Great Recession began in December 2007 and climbed to 9.5% through the 18-month downturn.

Healthcare organizations hired steadily through the recession, though recent hiring trends show hospital hiring has cooled while ambulatory-care employment has accelerated.

Last month's gain in healthcare employment amounted to a 0.2% increase for the month and a 1.8% increase, or 256,200 jobs, for the year that ended in September.

Hospitals added 6,200 jobs last month, a gain of 0.1%, and hospital payrolls have grown 23,500 during the 12 months that ended in September, or growth of 0.5%. Total hospital employment reached 4.82 million last month.

Ambulatory-care employment grew by 14,200 jobs, or 0.2%, and added 203,100 jobs for the year that ended last month, or growth of 3.1%. The sector's total employment last month was 6.73 million.

Hiring was essentially flat, however, for physician offices, a subsector within ambulatory care. For the year that ended in September, employment by physician offices increased by 60,600 jobs, or 2.5%, to 2.5 million.

All other ambulatory-care subsectors saw job growth, most notably home care, which added 6,800 jobs, an increase of 0.5%, to bring the sector's total employment to 1.3 million. For the year that ended in September, home care added 46,700 jobs, or growth of 3.7%.

Also notable was the employment gain in outpatient care centers, which grew by 2,400 jobs last month, or 0.3%. Outpatient care added 33,000 jobs in the year that ended last month, for growth of 4.8%. Outpatient care employment totaled 724,100 last month.

Follow Melanie Evans on Twitter: @MHmevans