Physician office hiring up as health care job market weakens

Although the overall job market was weaker than expected in June, health care continued to be a leader in adding employees -- particularly in physicians' offices.

The health care sector added 13,500 jobs in June, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a division of the U.S. Dept. of Labor (link).

During the past 12 months, health care has added an average of 24,000 jobs per month, according to the BLS. The 13,500 jobs added by health made it one of the top sectors in adding employees, though the total was the lowest in the past year for the field.

Health care added 17,400 jobs in May, down from a 2011 peak of 36,700 in April, according to BLS numbers released July 8.

The number of health care jobs went up because of ambulatory services, a subcategory that added 16,500 jobs in June. In that subcategory, physician offices represented 5,000 of those jobs, the second-highest total behind 5,300 added in home health care services. Physician-office hiring increased in June, with only 2,200 jobs added to that sector in May. That figure, though, did not match the 6,900 created in physician offices in April and the 9,000 added in March.

Meanwhile, hospitals, after a long stretch of adding jobs, cut 4,000 jobs in June. That was the first month-over-month cut in hospital jobs since July 2010. Hospitals added 4,100 jobs in May and 11,500 in April.

Analysts said hospital cuts -- and the overall slower growth in health care hiring -- came about because of continuing weakness in the economy, including an unemployment rate of 9.2% in June. The net gain in new jobs for the month was 18,000. Economists had expected more than 100,000 new jobs in June.

Also, analysts said health care -- particularly hospitals more heavily reliant on Medicare and Medicaid funding -- is slicing costs because of state and local budget cuts, as well as saving money in advance of anticipated future federal and state cuts.

Some weakness was evident in the Conference Board's June 29 count of online help-wanted ads. The board's health care practitioners and technical category saw a decline of 16,500 ads in June, down to 548,700. That was after a drop in May of 3,400.

The Conference Board said the fall was led by a decline in the number of advertisements for physical therapists, general internists and family physicians.