Nursing and residential care facilities added 9,000 jobs in May, according to employment data released Friday by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That’s far fewer than the number of jobs added in ambulatory healthcare services and hospitals, at 24,000 and 20,000, respectively.
Overall, the healthcare sector gained approximately 52,000 jobs in May. The numbers track with the average monthly gain of 50,000 healthcare jobs over the past 12 months. The amount is up from the April jobs gain of 40,000.
Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 339,000 in May. According to BLS, this amount is in line with the average monthly gain of 341,000 over the prior 12 months. In addition to healthcare, job gains occurred in the categories of professional and business services, government, construction, transportation and warehousing, and social assistance.
Average hourly earnings for all employees on private, nonfarm payrolls rose $0.11, or 0.3%, to $33.44, That’s a below-average increase compared with the previous months. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 4.3%.
Pay growth, as the McKnight’s Business Daily previously reported, is “slowing substantially,” according to the May ADP National Employment Report produced by the ADP Research Institute in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab.
“Wage-driven inflation may be less of a concern for the economy despite robust hiring,” ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson said in a statement regarding that report.
