Healthcare lost 29,600 jobs in January, with hospitals seeing job loss for the first month since September, according to the latest jobs report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The January count compares to 38,800 healthcare jobs added in December, and 46,000 healthcare jobs added in November. Overall, employment in the industry is down by 542,000 since February 2020, according to the bureau.
Within ambulatory healthcare services, dentist offices saw 2,800 new jobs, physician offices saw 3,400 job gains, and home health services lost 13,100 jobs last month.
Hospitals lost 2,100 jobs in January, the first job loss seen since losing 6,400 jobs in September.
Nursing and residential care facilities lost 31,000 jobs last month, compared to 13,400 jobs lost in December, and 10,400 jobs lost in November.
The U.S. gained 49,000 jobs in January after losing 140,000 jobs in December. The unemployment rate fell to 6.3 percent in January, compared to 6.7 percent in December.
To view the full jobs report, click here.