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Healthcare Job Growth Exceeds 12-month Average in July 2016

By SCMA On 14/08/2016  

Healthcare gained 43,200 new jobs in July, slightly more than the 12-month average of 39,700 new jobs per month.

Healthcare gained 43,200 new jobs in July, slightly more than the 12-month average of 39,700 new jobs per month, according to the Health Sector Economic Indicators briefs released by the Altarum Institute's Center for Sustainable Health Spending.

Some noteworthy developments:

  • Strong growth in hospital hiring put the July figure of 17,100 above the 12-month average of 15,300.
  • Nursing and residential care settings added 7,200 jobs in July, more than twice the 12-month average of 3,200. 
  • The ambulatory services sector gained 19,000 jobs while hospitals gained 17,000 jobs.
  • July continued an upward trend in job growth for the healthcare sector; in June there were 39,000 jobs added in healthcare.
  • Over the past 12 months, healthcare has added more than 477,000 jobs.
  • There is an anticipated 19 percent increase in healthcare employment by the year 2024, a much faster growth than other industries.

Continuing the recent pattern, healthcare jobs increased 3.2% year over year while non-health jobs increased 1.6%. The health share of total employment held at the all-time high of 10.78%, according to the report.

Among the healthcare positions, however, the medical and diagnostic laboratories as well as residential mental health facilities saw a decrease in employment over the last month, with 300 and 200 jobs respectively.

Nevertheless, healthcare is expected to stay on a projected track of becoming the biggest sector in fewer than three years.

"Health spending growth has shown the expected slowing since the bump associated with Affordable Care Act expanded coverage, and could drop below 5% during the second half of 2016," said Charles Roehrig, founding director of the center. "This would be consistent with the latest CMS 11-year projections showing 4.8% growth for 2016."

Altarum Institute is a nonprofit health systems research and consulting organization. The research analyzed data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation report.