Healthcare Creates Nearly Half of All New U.S. Jobs in July.

The 55,000 jobs in July marks a slight drop from the healthcare sector's average of 63,000 over the past 12 months.

Healthcare created 55,000 jobs in July and accounted for nearly half (48%) of the 114,000 new jobs in U.S. economy last month, federal data show.

The 55,000 jobs in July marks a slight drop from the healthcare sector's average of 63,000 over the past 12 months, with most of the growth coming from home health care (22,000), hospitals (20,000), and residential and nursing care (9,000), the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.  

Job gains were also reported in construction (25,000), specialty trades (19,000), and transportation and warehousing (14,000).

The 114,000 new jobs created in the overall economy in July marks a precipitous drop (-46%) from the 213,000 jobs created, on average, over the past 12 months.

The unemployment rate in the larger U.S. economy increased 0.2 percentage points to 4.3%, BLS says, with 7.2 million people reporting as unemployed in June. These numbers are higher than in July 2023, when the jobless rate was 3.5%, and the number of unemployed people was 5.9 million.

The average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls in July rose by 8 cents (0.2%) to $35.07. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 3.6%. In July, the average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees rose by 9 cents (0.3%) to $30.14.

June and July job numbers are considered preliminary by BLS, and subject to revision.