Ambulatory Care, Hospital Employment Grew During April 2022

The healthcare industry added 34,000 jobs in April 2022, with ambulatory care, nursing and residential care facility, and hospital employment all seeing growth, according to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The additions brought the total number of healthcare jobs to 162,408,000 and surpassed the 8,300 new jobs the industry saw in March.

Ambulatory healthcare services saw the greatest gains, adding nearly 28,000 jobs last month and hitting a total of 8.1 million. The increase within this sector was mainly driven by the boost in physician office employment, which rose by 9,800.

Home healthcare services also saw substantial growth, adding 7,800 jobs.

Physician offices and home health providers currently employ more people than before the COVID-19 pandemic, with 2.8 million and nearly 1.6 million jobs.

Health practitioner offices added 4,100 jobs, going from 1,072,500 in March to 1,076,600 in April. Dentist offices, outpatient care centers, medical and diagnostic laboratories, and other ambulatory healthcare services increased employment, with additions ranging from 400 to 2,500 jobs.

After falling drastically in April 2020, ambulatory care employment has increased steadily throughout the pandemic and has exceeded pre-pandemic numbers.

Hospitals added 4,500 jobs in April, going from 5,138,000 jobs in March to 5,142,500 in April. This increase fell slightly short of the growth hospitals saw in March, which added up to 5,100 new jobs.

Despite the growth last month, hospitals are still down around 100,000 jobs since the start of the pandemic. Hospital employment has been shaky since April 2020. Hospitals started the pandemic with 5,236,000 jobs and plummeted to 5,069,900 jobs in May 2020.

Hospital employment slowly rose to 5.16 million in December 2020 but fell again in January 2021. Since then, job numbers have fluctuated slightly, remaining between 5.12 and 5.14 million.

Employment at nursing and residential care facilities increased by nearly 2,000 jobs in April 2022, according to the report.

After experiencing employment deficits in March, nursing care facilities added 900 new jobs in April. Residential mental health facilities also added jobs in April after facing losses in March. The sector added 3,400 jobs, which is the largest increase it has seen since September 2020.

Community care facilities for the elderly and other residential care facilities lost 1,100 and 1,300 jobs—the only areas to see deficits instead of gains last month. In March, community care facilities had been the only area in the nursing and residential care facilities sector to see employment growth.

Nursing and residential care facilities are down roughly 400,000 compared to February 2020.

Overall, healthcare employment reached its highest point last month since March 2020, but the industry is still down 250,000 jobs or 1.5 percent since before the pandemic.

As individual sectors see slight job recovery, a significant workforce shortage still plagues healthcare settings. A recent report from HHS found that the industry lost 1.5 million workers between March and April 2020 due to the pandemic.

Burnout, stressful environments, and better financial opportunities have been driving forces behind high turnover rates among healthcare staff.