Healthcare sector adds 26K jobs

The healthcare sector added another 26,000 jobs in March, with physicians' offices and hospitals each adding 8,000 jobs, the Labor Department reported Friday.

Only professional and business services added more jobs — 31,000 — last month.

Overall, the economy added 120,000 jobs last month, far less than the 210,000 economists had predicted. The unemployment rate dropped to 8.2 percent following a three-month streak when employment had been growing by more than 200,000 a month. 

Healthcare employment also saw a slowdown. The sector added 49,000 jobs in February for a record total of 92,000 jobs in the first two months of the year — far more than the previous two-month record of 81,000 jobs added between August and September 2002.

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