Healthcare employment tops 16 million, the most since early 2020

Healthcare employment rebounded somewhat in October after a dip in September.

The healthcare industry added an estimated 37,200 jobs in October after a slight decline in September, when the industry shed 1,000 jobs—a revised count that shows a much smaller decrease than the government's previous report. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics published its latest preliminary jobs data on Friday.

The number of people working in healthcare surpassed 16 million for the first time since March 2020, a month before the COVID-19 pandemic began depressing employment in the sector. Healthcare employers were hit hard by pandemic-related shutdowns and have struggled to regain former staffing levels, especially as burned-out workers leave the field.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics dramatically undershot its September employment projections. The agency typically revises initial estimates in subsequent months as new data come in, but the chasm between September's projected and actual numbers were particularly wide. The agency originally reported that overall employment grew by 194,000 jobs in September, which it has now revised to 312,000. In healthcare, the government originally projected a decline of 17,500 jobs, which it later revised to just 1,000.

As usual, most of healthcare's job gains occurred in the ambulatory sector, which accounted for 87% of new hires last month. Home health saw the biggest uptick in October, adding an estimated 15,800 jobs following strong hiring in August and September. Home health employment remains below pre-pandemic levels, however.

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Physicians' offices also ramped up hiring and added 8,600 jobs, which surpassed pre-pandemic employment levels for the first time since the novel coronavirus struck the U.S. Dental offices added 2,300 jobs in October. Dentists saw some of the biggest and earliest employment drops at the outset of the pandemic, but the sector's workforce is now larger than before the crisis began.

Hospitals added just 1,100 jobs in October, another weak hiring month following a decline in September. Hospital employment has been especially choppy since the pandemic began, and still sits well below pre-pandemic levels.

Hospitals lost an estimated $54 billion in net income in 2021 caring for COVID-19 patients, according to an analysis by Kaufman Hall conducted for the American Hospital Association. That's partly because they've had to postpone more profitable surgeries and because COVID-19 patients tend to be complex and resource-intensive.

Nursing homes added workers in October, the first month of growth since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Those facilities rebounded by making an estimated 11,800 new hires last month following large retraction in September, when they shed almost 16,000 jobs. Community care facilities for the elderly lost 4,200 jobs last month. Both nursing home and community care employment are well below pre-pandemic levels.

Total nonfarm employment grew by an estimated 531,000 in October and the unemployment rate ticked down 0.2 percentage points to 4.6%. The economy's biggest gains were in leisure and hospitality, which added 164,000 jobs, and professional and business services, which added 100,000.