Dive Brief:
The healthcare industry added 62,000 jobs in May, exceeding the sector’s average monthly gain of 44,000 workers over the past year, according to a new report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday.
Employers added 30,000 hospital jobs, 29,000 ambulatory healthcare services roles and 6,000 skilled nursing positions last month, according to the report.
The monthly jobs data demonstrates continued strong demand for healthcare workers, despite broader economic uncertainty and reports of some health systems freezing hiring or implementing layoffs.
Dive Insight:
In recent weeks, PeaceHealth, NewYork-Presbyterian Health System, University of New Mexico Hospital, Penn Medicine, Yale New Haven Health, Mass General Brigham, Jefferson Health and Lehigh Valley Health Network have all let workers go or consolidated their leadership teams, citing concerns about growing headwinds.
Still, there are signs that the broader labor market may be cooling slightly. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 139,000 in May, down compared to April when payrolls increased by 147,000.
And some sectors are contracting. Federal government payrolls have notably shrunk since January, as the Trump administration seeks to eliminate what they say are redundancies and bloat in government, including at the HHS.
In May, federal roles decreased by 22,000, according to the report.
Meanwhile, fewer Americans are looking for work, according to the BLS. While the unemployment rate stayed flat between April and May, 625,000 people dropped out of the workforce and are neither working nor seeking work.
