Anyone who thought healthcare hiring might finally slow down will have to wait at least another month.
The healthcare industry added 43,200 jobs in July, the third-highest monthly total in the sector in 2016, according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That comes on the heels of June, when the federal government initially showed a gain of 38,500 healthcare jobs. June's number was revised upward by 700 jobs.
The strongest month this year for healthcare was May, when the job market for the rest of the economy tanked.
In the past 12 months, nearly 477,000 jobs have been created in healthcare. Almost 275,000 of that total were added in the first seven months of 2016.
Despite consolidation throughout the industry, hospitals continue to bolster their payrolls with more employees. Hospitals added 17,100 jobs in July and 102,400 jobs this year.
Employment across physician practices, which increasingly have been scooped up by hospitals, ticked upward by 8,900 people. Almost 2.6 million people now work in the physician office setting.
Medical and diagnostic labs lost 300 jobs, according to the July BLS report. Labs have shed 1,700 jobs in 2016.
