Healthcare hiring ramped up in January even as omicron raged

Healthcare employment was more resilient than expected in January as companies picked up hiring even as COVID-19 hospitalizations reached a record high.

Healthcare companies added an estimated 18,000 jobs in the first month of 2022, up from 14,300 in December, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report issued Friday. The industry’s strong showing contributed to 467,000 new jobs recorded across the economy, which was far more than economists projected.

Physician clinics, dental offices and hospitals accelerated hiring during a difficult month for the healthcare sector. During the latter part of January, hospitalizations hit an all-time high, although they’ve since receded.

The latest jobs report includes significant revisions to the Bureau of Labor Statistics previous estimates. The agency now says healthcare employers added 14,300 jobs in December after originally reporting the sector lost 3,100 jobs that month. Likewise, the Bureau of Labor Statistics updated its findings from December for the entire economy: Instead of 199,000 hires that month, there were 510,000, according to the revised data.

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Physicians’ offices saw the biggest job gains in January, when they made an estimated 9,700 hires, up from 3,200 in December. Dental clinics also had a relatively strong month and added 3,700 workers, 900 more than during December.

The home health sector had an estimated 1,700 fewer jobs in January after gaining 1,800 the previous month. Medical and diagnostic laboratories lost 200 jobs last month, per the preliminary estimates.

Hospitals made an estimated 3,400 new hires in January after adding 2,000 employees a month before. The December jobs report estimated that hospitals had lost thousands of jobs.

January appears to have been an unusually strong month for nursing care facilities, which made an estimated 2,100 hires. Nursing homes shed jobs in all but one month of 2021 and ended this January with almost 5% fewer jobs than during January 2021.

The U.S. unemployment rate was 4% in January, up from 3.9% in December. The number of people who said they couldn’t work because their employers closed or lost business due to the pandemic almost doubled from 3.1 million in December to 6 million in January. Total employment is still down 1.9% from February 2020, the month before the novel coronavirus spread widely across the country.

Leisure and hospitality reported the largest gains in January by adding an estimated 151,000 jobs, mostly in bars and restaurants. Professional and business services added 86,000 jobs. Retail traded added 61,000 jobs.