Hospital, Health System Employment Grew by 5,100 in March 2022

The healthcare industry added 8,300 jobs in March 2022, with hospital and health system employment growing by 5,100, according to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Last month was the slowest month of job growth that the industry has seen since March 2021. It is also the smallest increase so far in 2022. The country added 66,400 healthcare jobs in February and 18,000 in January.

Hospitals and ambulatory healthcare services saw the highest employment growth in March, the report found. Hospitals added 5,100 new jobs last month, going from 5,132,200 jobs in February to 5,137,300 in March.

Ambulatory healthcare added 7,200 new jobs, with the bulk of the increase concentrated within home healthcare services. Home healthcare added 6,400 jobs, going from 1,544,100 jobs in February to 1,550,500 in March.

Health practitioner offices and outpatient care centers also saw modest employment boosts of 2,200 and 1,200 jobs.

However, even with the overall growth in healthcare jobs, several sectors of the industry saw job losses in March.

For example, physician offices and dentist offices lost a respective 1,300 and 1,500 jobs, while medical and diagnostic laboratory jobs dropped by 900.

Nursing and residential care facilities experienced the most significant employment deficits in March, according to the report. Nursing care facilities lost 2,500 jobs, and residential mental health facilities lost 3,000.

Community care facilities for the elderly saw a slight employment increase of 1,500—the only residential care facility to see growth instead of loss.

Since the start of the pandemic, healthcare employment growth has varied depending on the sector.

Hospital employment has fluctuated since March 2020. The sector started the pandemic with 5.2 million employees. The number dropped to 5 million in May 2020 and has since grown to 5.1 million in March 2022. Hospitals saw employment growth during 15 out of the past 22 months, but numbers are still almost 100,000 below pre-pandemic numbers.

Meanwhile, ambulatory healthcare services employment hit a low in April 2020 but has seen general growth every month since then. Physician offices have generally added more jobs each month since the pandemic hit but have seen small losses during select months.

On the other hand, nursing and residential care facilities have continued to face job losses since March 2020. The sector employed 3.3 million individuals in March 2020 and was down to 2.9 million in March 2022.

The healthcare industry as a whole is down 294,000 jobs compared to March 2020.

Overall, the United States added 431,000 new jobs in March 2022, bringing the unemployment rate to 3.6 percent—the lowest rate since the pandemic started. However, the country is still down 1.6 million jobs compared to pre-pandemic times.

Staffing shortages have plagued almost every area of the healthcare industry throughout the pandemic.

Hospital chief executive officers cited labor shortages as the top concern for 2021. Meanwhile, a third of nurses plan to quit their current position by the end of the year due to burnout, stressful environments, and inadequate compensation.

Even behind-the-scenes healthcare workers are facing staffing shortages, with revenue cycle management leaders struggling to fill registrar, billing specialist, and patient follow-up staff positions in 2021.