Healthcare sector added 49,000 new positions in June

The June jobs report turned out to be hotter than expected on Friday, with nonfarm payrolls rising by 206,000, topping economists’ forecasts of 190,000. Health care was a strong sector in the jobs report, adding 49,000 jobs in June alone.

Anjalee Khemlani, a health reporter at Yahoo Finance, discusses the significant job growth in the health care industry and the biggest challenges it faces in retaining workers.

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This post was written by Angel Smith

Video Transcription

The health care sector added 49,000 jobs in June, down from the 68,000 jobs created in the industry in June.

Did you notice that senior healthcare reporter Angeli Kani dug into the numbers, Angeli?

It’s true, Brian, we know that healthcare jobs have really been growing at a rapid pace over the last few months.

But now we see a decrease in the monthly average of 64,000, we saw 22,000 new jobs in healthcare (outpatient healthcare) and 22,000 in hospitals.

And it is these areas of work that have been created most frequently over the last few months.

I looked at what had happened in the last year.

We’ve seen these numbers every month for the past year, dating back to April of last year.

So what’s the story behind that? We’ve actually seen a lot of turnover in the sector and that’s been one of the drivers of job growth, as well as things like burnout, supply and demand between where the jobs are and where they’re being applied for.

Because of the pressure from insurers, you know, they’re paying less and it’s causing some constraints on hospitals and health care systems.

Meanwhile, costs for the same facilities where burnout occurs are rising.

Currently, the healthcare sector is experiencing a serious crisis situation.

And this may be the reason for these slight fluctuations.

We know that there are also changes in the attitudes of doctors and healthcare workers who are moving to telemedicine or other areas where there is a better work-life balance.

All of this impacts what we see in these numbers from month to month.

And yes, we did see a slight dip this month after having some record results historically, but it’s certainly worth keeping an eye on how this plays out over the rest of the year.

Well, Angeli, thank you so much for following the situation in the healthcare sector.