The number of people employed in the healthcare sector has exceeded 16 million, the highest since the beginning of 2020

As usual, most of the growth in healthcare jobs has occurred in the outpatient sector, which accounted for 87% of new hires last month. The biggest growth came in October, with about 15,800 jobs in the home health sector following strong hiring in August and September. However, home employment is still lower than it was before the pandemic.

Doctors’ offices also increased hiring and added 8,600 jobs, surpassing pre-pandemic employment levels for the first time since the novel coronavirus emerged. Dental offices in the US added 2,300 jobs in October. At the start of the pandemic, dentists experienced one of the largest and first job losses, but the workforce in this sector is now larger than it was before the crisis.

Hospitals added just 1,100 jobs in October, another month of weak hiring after the September decline. Since the start of the pandemic, hospital employment has been particularly volatile and remains significantly lower than before the pandemic.

According to Kaufman Hall analysis conducted for the American Hospital Association. This is in part because they had to postpone more lucrative surgeries, and also because COVID-19 patients tend to be complex and resource intensive.

Nursing homes added workers in October, the first month of growth since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. These businesses recovered, hiring roughly 11,800 new employees last month, following a significant headcount in September when they cut nearly 16,000 jobs. Community nursing facilities lost 4,200 jobs last month. Employment rates in both nursing homes and communities are well below pre-pandemic levels.

Total non-agricultural employment rose by about 531,000 in October, while the unemployment rate fell 0.2 percentage points to 4.6%. The largest growth in the economy came from the leisure and hospitality sector, which added 164,000 jobs, and professional and business services, which added 100,000 people.