Healthcare hiring surged in June, jobs report shows

Home healthcare services added 9,000 jobs after losing several thousand the previous month. The sector has risen well above its pre-pandemic levels.

Physician offices added 5,800 positions, continuing the sector’s stable growth. Nursing care facilities, which brought on 5,400 workers, still employ more than 200,000 fewer people than in February 2020.

Outpatient care centers made 5,000 hires, and offices of dentists and other health practitioners added 3,400 jobs and 3,700 jobs, respectively.

The only sector in healthcare that didn’t increase hiring was other ambulatory care services, which gained no positions.

The overall jobless rate has held steady for the past few months at 3.6%, and approximately 5.9 million people were unemployed in June, the BLS report shows. The jobless rate was 3.5% in February 2020. An estimated 2.1 million people reported being unable to work last month due to closures or lost business linked to the pandemic, a number essentially unchanged from May.

Professional and business services reported the largest gains, with an estimated 74,000 new jobs, followed by leisure and hospitality employers, which made 67,000 hires.