Healthcare added 38,800 jobs in December, with hospitals seeing job growth for the sixth month since March, according to the latest jobs report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The December count is lower than the 46,000 jobs added in November, and the 58,300 healthcare jobs added in October. Overall, healthcare employment is down 502,000 since February, according to the BLS.
Within ambulatory healthcare services, dentist offices saw 4,600 new jobs, physician offices saw 200 job gains, and home health services had 1,500 job gains last month.
Hospitals added 31,500 jobs in December, compared to 4,700 job gains in November and 16,200 job gains in October.
Nursing and residential care facilities lost 13,400 jobs last month, compared to 10,400 jobs lost in November and 8,600 jobs lost in October.
The U.S. lost 140,000 jobs in December after adding 245,000 jobs in November. The unemployment rate fell to 6.7 percent in November and remained unchanged in December.
To view the full jobs report, click here.