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August 07, 2015 01:00 AM

Hospital hiring booms in July, but outlook sketchy

Michael Sandler
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    Hiring at hospitals continued its roller-coaster year, as healthcare's largest sector faces increased staffing competition. Hospitals added 15,700 positions in July, more than doubling June's increase, according to seasonally adjusted numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

    But hospitals, so far, have struggled to find traction in hiring this year. The sector added 14,200 jobs in May, but that slipped 4.7% from April's job additions. And in March, the sector added only 7,900 jobs, plummeting 19.4% from February's 9,800 additions. But that was a 16.9% decrease from the 11,800 jobs hospitals added in January.

    Consolidation and rural hospital closings could be a factor, said Phillip Miller, vice president of communications at Merritt Hawkins, a Dallas-based physician staffing firm. Another reason could be that hospitals face increased competition from medical groups and community health centers, he said.

    A study released last month by Merritt Hawkins suggested a drop-off in hospital hiring of physicians. The study found that between April 2014 and March 2015, 51% of the 3,120 searches for physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants were on behalf of hospitals and hospital-owned practices, a drop-off from 64% of physician searches by hospitals the previous two years. It is the first decrease since 2004, according to the study.

    But AMN Healthcare, the parent company of Merritt Hawkins, saw a 39.5% uptick in revenue from nurse, locum tenens and physician permanent placement services in the second quarter of 2015 over 2014.

    “Sometimes it's difficult to find a narrative for these counter intuitive numbers that come out,” Miller said.

    The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts hospital employment will grow 17% over the next decade, but will be outpaced by overall healthcare employment, which it projects will grow at a 29.4% rate.

    Healthcare overall added 27,900 jobs in July, but that was still down 35.1% from the updated figure of 40,200 in June.

    Elsewhere, ambulatory health care services added 8,900 jobs, but that was down 69.6% from 29,300 in June, the high for the year so far.

    Home health services hired 3,400 jobs, and nursing and residential care added 3,300 jobs, down 19.5% from June, as that sector girds for a smaller Medicare rate increase for fiscal 2016.

    Overall, the U.S. economy added 215,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.3% in July from June.

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      • Conferences
        • Digital Health Transformation Summit
        • ESG: The Implementation Imperative Summit
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        • - Hospital of the Future (Fall)
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