For the second month in a row, the healthcare sector saw an increase in job growth, with home healthcare services leading the sector in job growth.
 
According to the newest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) employment report issued Friday morning, job growth was widespread, with the greatest increases seen in the leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, construction, and healthcare industries.
 
The healthcare gained 64,000 jobs in the month of February, tripling the job growth seen in the sector in January.
 
Home healthcare services (20,000), offices of physicians (15,000), and the officer of other health practitioners (12,000), all saw great increases in job growth, according to the BLS.
 
The ambulatory healthcare sector saw the greatest increase with an addition of 53,600 jobs. Additionally, the nursing home and residential care facility sector saw a 7,200 increase in jobs, and the hospital sector saw a 2,700 increase.
 
Since February 2020, healthcare is still down by 306,000 jobs, or down 1.9% from pre-pandemic levels.
According to the BLS, total nonfarm payroll employment saw an increase of 678,000 jobs in February, which lowered the unemployment rate down to 3.8%, leaving 6.3 million people still unemployed.
 
Unemployment during pre-pandemic levels in February 2020 was 3.5%, with 5.7 million people unemployed.

Melanie Blackman is the strategy editor at HealthLeaders, an HCPro brand.