Healthcare employment up in July

Editor's Note

Healthcare employment in the US rose by 55,000 from July to August,  according to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), released on August 2. The gain is similar to the average monthly gain of 63,000 over the prior 12 months.

In July, employment also trended up in:

• home health care services rose by 22,000
• hospitals rose by 20,000
• nursing and residential care facilities rose by 9,000

The unemployment rate rose by 0.2 percentage point to 4.3 percent in July, and the number of unemployed people increased by 352,000 to 7.2 million. According to an August 2 BLS news release, these measures are higher than a year earlier, when the jobless rate was 3.5 percent, and the number of unemployed people was 5.9 million.