Healthcare sector remains on top in job growth

The healthcare sector once again led the nation's job growth last month, adding about 49,000 jobs to non-farm payroll employment, according to the monthly numbers from the national Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The economy added 227,000 jobs last month, the report says, but the unemployment rate stayed flat at 8.3 percent as more people started looking for work. 

The numbers mark the third straight month the economy added more than 200,000 jobs, even as 12.8 million Americans remained unemployed.

Ambulatory care services added 28,000 jobs, according to the BLS, while hospital employment increased by 15,000. Over the past 12 months, healthcare employment has risen by 360,000.

The growth in the healthcare sector marks a new record, according to The Advisory Board Company. Coupled with the BLS's update of its January jobs report, healthcare added 92,000 jobs through the first two months of 2012 - far more than the previous two-month record of 81,000 jobs added between August and September of 2002.

Chas Roades, chief research officer with The Advisory Board Company, predicted healthcare will continue to be an economic growth engine for years.

"With an aging population, continued increases in chronic disease driven by obesity and lifestyle, and the coming coverage expansion, we're going to need more of all types of health care workers," Roades said in a statement. "Wages are likely to rise in the sector as well, because the same aging trend will drive a growing shortage of clinical talent."

Update: This post was updated at 10:45 a.m. with comment from The Advisory Board Company.

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