Physician office hiring picks up, but overall health care employment drops

The pace of physician office employment grew in October, even as the overall rate of health care employment growth fell, according to numbers released Nov. 4 by the U.S. Dept. of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (link).

Physician office employment increased by 8,000 in October, up from a rise of 5,900 in September. Meanwhile, health care employment went up 11,600 in October, a decline from the 45,000 jobs it added in September. In the last year, health care has added about 26,000 jobs per month. Physician offices have added jobs at a rate of 5,300 per month during the same period.

By comparison, overall U.S. job growth has increased at a rate of 125,000 per month during the last year, although the average has gone down with tepid growth in the last few months, including only 80,000 jobs added in October. The Labor Dept. set the unemployment rate at 9%, down slightly from 9.1% in September.

Sectors in health care did not match the growth rate of physician offices, sending the overall increase down. For example, hospitals added 3,300 jobs in October, about half of what they added in September.

The health care category includes some jobs that are not individually broken out as health positions. A Conference Board report on online job advertisements gives a hint of one area that might be dragging down health care job growth -- office support positions.

The board, which on Oct. 31 released its monthly report on positions posted online, said health care support was growing weaker and was expected to trend that way for the foreseeable future. The Conference Board did not disclose the number of ads for health support positions.

However, the board did see a decline in ads in Healthcare Practitioners and Technical, a category that includes physicians. The category posted the largest decline of any tracked by the Conference Board, down 25,000 from September to 506,600 in October. The board said fewer advertised vacancies for registered nurses and family and general physicians drove the decline. Overall, the Conference Board noted a decrease of 13,000 job ads in October, continuing a fall since near the beginning of 2011.

Despite the health decrease, the Conference Board saw no cause for alarm for anyone seeking a clinical job. The number of advertised vacancies in the health category outnumbered job seekers by a ratio of 2.6 ads to every one prospective employee.

"There's a huge demand for primary care physicians, and demand continues to be very high," said Jim Stone, president of the Medicus Firm in Dallas and vice president of the National Assn. of Physician Recruiters. "There's limited supply. While the drop is statistically significant, I don't think the reality has changed all that much for practices and hospitals who need continued diligence in recruiting. You have to be competitive with your recruiting process and competitive with the package.

"A good-quality physician can basically throw a dart at the map and find a good opportunity."